This article was written on August 18th. On this specific day, there are 106,000 scheduled passenger flights worldwide. Of these, about 8,280 – one in every 13 – is by a widebody aircraft (i.e., with twin aisles). More than 150 airlines will use them. Emirates is the largest operator – it only has widebody aircraft – followed by Qatar Airways, All Nippon, United, and Air China.

430+ airports have twin-aisle flights

Using Cirium to analyze all flights globally on August 18th reveals that more than 430 airports will have at least one departing flight by the large equipment.

They include the likes of Australia's Gold Coast (Jetstar Boeing 787-8 to Tokyo Narita) and the USA's St Louis (Lufthansa A330-300 to Frankfurt) to Burkina Faso's Ouagadougou (Air France A330-200 to Paris CDG) and Iran's Zahedan (Mahan Air A340-300 to Tehran).

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

Mainly because of domestic operations in China and Japan, Asia has far more widebody services than any other continent or region. It has more than twice the flights as second-ranked Europe.

Some 145 airports across Asia are scheduled to see passenger twin aisles on the 18th. Other important continents are Europe (86), Africa (57), and North America (54). Yes, Ontario, California, did – as usual – have a China Airlines 777-300ER departure to Taipei at 00:40. It has served the route since March 2018.

Photo: TimeDepot.Twn | Shutterstock.

The world's top five widebody airports

Not surprisingly, Tokyo Haneda – Asia's second-busiest airport – has the most passenger flights by large aircraft. It has 333 departures on the 18th, which is amusing to me, at least, given this is the IATA code for the A330-300, a widebody type. More than one in two of Haneda's flights is by a twin-aisle.

Two-thirds of Haneda's widebody flights are on domestic flights, thanks to All Nippon and Japan Airlines, with the 767-300 being used the most. Haneda would not be first if seats (reflecting aircraft size) or available seat miles/km (reflecting seats and distance) were examined instead.

Photo: Kittikun Yoksap | Shutterstock.

Doha has the greatest proportion

While the following map is somewhat confusing to look at, it shows the world's top 100 airports for widebody flights on the 18th. When data is related to all passenger flights, Doha has the greatest proportion of twin-aisle services, with virtually six in ten departures by them.

Some 12 operators are present, including Air Algérie to Algiers using the A330-200 and EgyptAir back to Cairo with the A330-300. But it is, of course, nearly entirely because of Qatar Airways. The majority of its fleet are widebodies, comprising A330-200s, A330-300s, A350-900s, A350-1000s, A380s, 777-200LRs, 777-300ERs, 787-8s, and 787-9s.

Image: GCMap.

After Doha is Taipei (53.5%), then Hong Kong (52.8%), Tokyo Haneda (51.6%), and Dubai (49.7%). Ranking 100th is Denver. Just 19 of its 950 departing passenger flights (double for both ways) on the 18th – a mere 2.0% – are by widebodies. United has 15, Lufthansa two, and there is one each by Air France and British Airways.

Are you be flying a widebody on the 18th? If so, let us know which airline by leaving a comment.

Sources of information: Cirium, Flightradar24, ch-aviation.com.