I am not sure where to put this, but please move it if this forum is inappropriate for this thread.


I have a conjecture, that one can fly to one airport to another airport (provided both airports have scheduled flights) with two connection. From A, if it is not a hub itself, fly to the most accessible hub, then fly to a hub near point B if there is no flights to B, then fly to B from the second hub. I am sure there are exceptions, but I want to compute the average number of stops it take.


To move forward with a project, I will need to access some kind of routing database. Are there ways that I can obtain this in a file or with some sort of API from an existing website?

(Databases with operating airlines would be preferred as it would be interesting to compare the statistics between the three alliances or even individual airlines)

Thank you for your help,

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Your assumption, that there are non-stop flights connecting every "hub" (by whatever definition) to every other hub, is flawed. This may be true within a limited area such as Europe or the U.S., but is not true on a worldwide basis. As one example with which I'm personally familiar, there are no non-stop flights between BOS (Boston, Mass.; the hub for New England regional flights) and SCL (Santiago, Chile; the hub of that country). Therefore, travel between (for example) MVY (Martha's Vineyard, Mass.) and PUQ (Punta Arenas, Chile) requires a minimum of three connections: at BOS, at an intermediate hub such as MIA, and at SCL.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are origin-destination pairs that require a minimum of four connections, though I can't think of any at the moment.

why?.....for what purpose?...good luck....

You just have to think of more isolated places, particularly tiny airports that have only one or two routes in and out. I just came up with PNI-TKK-GUM-NRT-OKA-UEO, probably the fastest routing between two small islands which are geographically not even that far from each other. You could probably figure out similarly crazy forced routings using smaller airports in Alaska, the Caribbean, Indonesia, Scotland, Greece, etc.

That's exactly the sort of thing I was thinking about. Posting a bit after midnight (in the eastern U.S. time zone), getting to bed seemed more important than coming up with a specific example. Thanks!

I seem to remember something being posted by ITA Hacker that, from their database, there are obscure airports that will take 7+ stops to connect between them (it may have been even 14+, but I can't remember the number). The journey would also take place over days, due to the limited weekly service available.