Anchorage was briefly the world’s busiest title on Saturday, April 25.
The coronavirus pandemic means that passenger traffic is currently down by more than 90% but the cargo demand is pretty high.
On Saturday, May 2, Anchorage had 744 flight operations when Chicago had only 579 and Atlanta 529.
Anchorage is positioned to perfect geographical advantage, at what the airport says is 9.5 hours’ flying time from 90% of the industrialized world.
The advantage of Anchorage is airplanes can fly filled with cargo but only half-filled with fuel. They fly into Anchorage and then they re-fuel and then onto their destination.
The airport has recently played host to the heaviest aircraft ever built, the Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane, and also some titans of sport — the New England Patriots’ plane stopped here because it was flying supplies between Boston and Asia.