DALLAS — Read this story and more North Texas business news from our partners at the Dallas Business Journal
North Texas is an aviation hub — fertile ground for carriers and aerospace companies as well as a place where people love to fly.
We knew that at Dallas Business Journal before we created new lists around the top destinations and carriers at the Metroplex's two major airports, but we were still surprised by the data we uncovered.
Using data from aviation analytics firm Cirium, DBJ ranked the most popular flight destinations from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (known by airport code "DFW") and Dallas Love Field Airport ("DAL"), based on total flights scheduled in 2023. Atlanta and Denver took the top two spots, each with more than 9,000 flights. But when only looking at DFW, the top destination was Los Angeles.
Here's an abbreviated look at the top 10, but for more in-depth data, check out the list linked below:
1. Atlanta, 9,860 combined DFW and DAL flights
2. Denver, 9,534
3. Los Angeles, 8,856
4. Las Vegas, 8,685
5. Austin, 7,812
6. Phoenix, 7,756
7. Houston, 7,704
8. Orlando, Florida, 7,564
9. Chicago, 7,349
10. New York, 7,336
We also ranked airlines flying out of the two airports based on available seat miles, which is a measure of airline capacity calculated by multiplying the number of seats by distance traveled. This was also based on 2023 schedules.
Of course, this part was no surprise: American Airlines and Southwest Airlines came in at Nos. 1 and 2.
After that, it got more interesting. Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines was No. 3 and Delta Air Lines came in at No. 4, followed by Qatar Airways at No. 5, owing to its long-distance flights from North Texas to Doha.
