ilcannone

Now I know I'm not as experienced as many other people are here, and I'm not sure if this is particularly interesting but here goes nothing...

Having just got back from SE Asia, it made me realise about various airports that I have/had never either:

a) been to at all
b) departed from
c) arrived at
or at a push:
d) never officially left (i.e. transit without going through passport control)

No doubt many of you have been to the major places like LHR, JFK, LAX, SIN, SYD, IST, CDG, PEK, etc to name a few, but are there any that you're surprised you haven't used? For example, my husband has been to the UK 3 times but has never used LHR. Surprising when Russians tend to go to London first when visiting the UK!

Some of my own personal ones would include:
Never used - BKK, UVF
Only departing - AUH, HEL,
Only arriving - DXB, VTE, ARN, HND, BCN
Only transited - FRA, BRU, VIE, IST, NRT

Consider the fact that I used to live near RUH and on several occasions went to UAE for flight connections, and that I'm a TK member!

Until this trip, I had only ever landed at VKO, but this time actually departed from there as well. (no prizes for guessing where I live...!)

Duke787

Interesting to think about:

Never: FRA (only been MUC a few times), AUH, DOH, HEL, TPE
Only Transiting: DXB, VIE, ICN, DFW, ZRH, GVA
Only Arriving: PEK
Only Departing: PVG

Never on FRA is most surprising for me given my travel patterns and prior loyalty to UA/*A for many years. I also keep meaning to actually stop and enjoy Austria but have only transited it instead of stopping there (really enjoy the transit experience there actually - might be why the FRA is a never)

BuildingMyBento

According to flightmemory.com, I'm at 293 airports. I've only made it to that amount because I deliberately route many flights just to check off another airport (merely arriving/departing once fits the bill).

WRT the OP's question, I've visited each location of the fifty busiest airports in the world (based on passenger traffic), but have only visited DOH from XDOH (while just transiting the current DOH).

OskiBear

Interesting - the ones I can think for me:

London - LHR/LCY, but never LGW
Paris - CDG but never ORY
Most major airports in Europe, but never BRU
Visited St Petersburg, but not LED

Growing up flying Transpac, have made a lot of stopovers (HNL, ANC, HND, GMP), but never GUM

sbm12

This should not come as much of a surprise. GUM is not really on the way to anywhere as a TPAC routing.

OskiBear

Interesting - when I was a kid, relatives would often get routed that way. I was always bummed they did and I didn't!

pinniped

My weakest coverage over the years has been Skyteam by far.

Been to Amsterdam twice, but never AMS.
Been to Venice three times, but never VCE.
Been to Rome four times, but never FCO.

I have been to CDG, but never ORY. (That one probably isn't so weird anymore.)

I've never been to any Asian Skyteam airport. Never been to Korea, for example. All of my TPACs have been *A or OW, so HKG, NRT, etc.

I've been to New York City dozens of times, but only recently (last 5 years) set foot in EWR for the first time.

When I was a kid, I'd had flown to/from MDW a couple dozen times before I ever flew to ORD.

milepig

Never been to or through JFK.

Neomarshal

You wouldn't want to!

MSPeconomist

I've never been near MCO. I'm afraid of mice.

I've also never been near HOU (Hobby), although I recently came close to booking an airport hotel there when I wanted a place near IAH.

princeville

a) IAH, DFW and MSP - I've spent lots of quality time in every other hub city for the major US airlines (present and past), but have managed to never have a connection at these three.

Also, considering how much of my international travel has been on LH, I find it surprising I've never gone through MUC; it's always FRA.

d) Although I've connected many times in ATL, I've never left the airport.

SANspotter

I've yet to transit through any of the big middle eastern airports such as DOH or DXB. They are on my list though!

In the US, I've pretty much been to them all except for LGA. For some reason that one has always escaped me.

ilcannone

An interesting variation on a theme there actually! So regarding this concept:

Been to Milan, but never used any airport in the entire north of Italy
Been to Vienna twice but only ever transited once
Been to Toronto but never used any airports in the area either
Been to Tbilisi but never used TBS
Been to Bishkek but never used FRU (although I ALMOST flew FRU-ULN-FRU on a whim, a decision I regret not doing)
Been to Doha but only ever transited through DOH (on unrelated visits)
Been to Kuwait City but never used KWI (the joy of living in Saudi Arabia)
Been around all the Balkan countries (i.e. Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia, and Bulgaria thrown in for good measure) but only ever flew into ZAG once.
Been to Oslo but never used OSL (used TRF instead)
Been to Rome but never FCO (used CIA instead)


Further additions to my own further post:

Flown only into SXF, MDW, TSE, BCN and EVN
Flown only out of GYD, TXL, ALA
Transited only in MUC and PRG (although I exited in PRG due to an 18-hour layover)

Chromie25

Never been through JFK although I have traveled and lived in NYC before (somehow all the flights I booked were either to EWR or LGA)

stut

Been to a few countries without ever visiting the airport - Monaco, Liechtenstein and the Vatican are a given, but also Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Pakistan, Estonia, Lithuania.

Otherwise, been to a few capital cities without using their airports (some overlap here, and I'll pass on the microstates): Bratislava, Ljubljana, Sarajevo, Islamabad, Tallinn, Vilnius, Canberra, Wellington, Rabat.

Otherwise, major cities? Venice, Valencia, Cologne, Stuttgart, Krakow, St Petersburg, Samarkand, Lahore, Peshawar, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Amritsar, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Fes... I guess some of these aren't so rare.

Some asymmetric flights - I've only ever departed from SFO and SEN, and I've only ever arrived at NWI and BHX. Several times for each.

HYD is an odd one. Arrived many times internationally (from LHR or DOH) but only ever left domestically (DEL, CCU, MAA).