Flyover country: Air-traffic analysis ranks all 50 states

Ben Abramson | USA TODAY

Determining which state has the least flyover traffic is easy. There are no routes from one U.S. state to another that traverse Hawaii or Alaska. But which state has the most?

A new analysis by championtraveler.com found a way to answer that. By taking the total number of domestic flights that cross a state's airspace in one year and dividing it by the number of flights that arrive at one of its airports, the site has a statistic to rank flyover states.

And the "winner" is ... West Virginia, with 466,364 flights passing over the state and only 2,387 landing there, a ratio of 195-1. The site explains, "West Virginia’s unavoidable geography between major hub cities means it will be flown over more, whereas a state like Alaska is never flown over by domestic travelers. However, in raw terms, 16 other states are flown over more often than West Virginia, but each one of them has a lower flyover ratio than West Virginia due to the number of destination flights."

The next closest is Kansas with 52.3 times the number of flyovers, followed by Mississippi (42.1), Iowa (39) and Kentucky (35.6). All numbers are based on DOT data for flights between August 2016 and July 2017.

The state with the most flyovers overall is Virginia, with 921,977, but with its busy airports in the D.C. suburbs it only ranks 7th for flyover ratio. And there's a special exception for the one state without regularly scheduled passenger service, Delaware.

See the table below for full rankings or, if you prefer the flyover experience, the slideshow above with one aerial photo from all 50 states.

STATE FLIGHTS TO FLIGHTS OVER RATIO West Virginia 2,387 466,364 There are 195.4 times more flights over West Virginia than as a destination. Kansas 9,703 50,7638 52.3 times more flights over Kansas than as a destination. Mississippi 10,068 423,605 There are 42.1 times more flights over Mississippi than as a destination. Iowa 12,817 499,965 There are 39 times more flights over Iowa than as a destination. Kentucky 16,178 576,293 There are 35.6 times more flights over Kentucky than as a destination. Wyoming 7,917 244,716 There are 30.9 times more flights over Wyoming than as a destination. Virginia 32,205 921,977 There are 28.6 times more flights over Virginia than as a destination. New Mexico 21,399 575,862 There are 26.9 times more flights over New Mexico than as a destination. Arkansas 14,974 394,876 There are 26.4 times more flights over Arkansas than as a destination. Alabama 23,843 447,931 There are 18.8 times more flights over Alabama than as a destination. South Dakota 8,052 151,268 There are 18.8 times more flights over South Dakota than as a destination. Nebraska 22,970 414,412 There are 18 times more flights over Nebraska than as a destination. Indiana 39,282 661,138 There are 16.8 times more flights over Indiana than as a destination. Oklahoma 30,020 433,732 There are 14.4 times more flights over Oklahoma than as a destination. South Carolina 30,263 435,378 There are 14.4 times more flights over South Carolina than as a destination. Rhode Island 13,151 139,544 There are 10.6 times more flights over Rhode Island than as a destination. Connecticut 21,501 194,478 There are 9 times more flights over Connecticut than as a destination. Idaho 21,500 193,891 There are 9 times more flights over Idaho than as a destination. Ohio 85,730 611,896 There are 7.1 times more flights over Ohio than as a destination. Tennessee 81,729 564,572 There are 6.9 times more flights over Tennessee than as a destination. Pennsylvania 110,556 658,666 There are 6 times more flights over Pennsylvania than as a destination. Maryland 99,031 581,602 There are 5.9 times more flights over Maryland than as a destination. North Dakota 10,726 61,088 There are 5.7 times more flights over North Dakota than as a destination. Montana 17,004 91,710 There are 5.4 times more flights over Montana than as a destination. New Jersey 122,974 587,842 There are 4.8 times more flights over New Jersey than as a destination. Missouri 104,404 487,271 There are 4.7 times more flights over Missouri than as a destination. Louisiana 67,165 284,215 There are 4.2 times more flights over Louisiana than as a destination. Vermont 3,708 15,681 There are 4.2 times more flights over Vermont than as a destination. North Carolina 162,329 676,605 There are 4.2 times more flights over North Carolina than as a destination. Utah 114,239 418,604 There are 3.7 times more flights over Utah than as a destination. Nevada 167,198 546,578 There are 3.3 times more flights over Nevada than as a destination. Arizona 176,531 567,688 There are 3.2 times more flights over Arizona than as a destination. Wisconsin 51,257 158,719 There are 3.1 times more flights over Wisconsin than as a destination. New Hampshire 6,364 19,672 There are 3.1 times more flights over New Hampshire than as a destination. Oregon 71,099 174,412 There are 2.5 times more flights over Oregon than as a destination. Colorado 245,548 461,304 There are 1.9 times more flights over Colorado than as a destination. Michigan 155,896 241,652 There are 1.6 times more flights over Michigan than as a destination. Illinois 352,071 537,712 There are 1.5 times more flights over Illinois than as a destination. New York 246,409 327,887 There are 1.3 times more flights over New York than as a destination. Georgia 391,889 254,667 There are 1.5 times more flights to Georgia than flying over it. Minnesota 138,461 60,761 There are 2.3 times more flights to Minnesota than flying over it. Texas 565,292 175,684 There are 3.2 times more flights to Texas than flying over it. Washington 148,410 26,831 There are 5.5 times more flights to Washington than flying over it. Massachusetts 125,110 20,946 There are 6 times more flights to Massachusetts than flying over it. California 740,782 14,562 There are 50.9 times more flights to California than flying over it. Florida 452,180 3,177 There are 142.3 times more flights to Florida than flying over it. Alaska 35,897 0 There are no flights over Alaska. Hawaii 102,602 0 There are no flights over Hawaii. Maine 7,299 0 There are no flights over Maine. Delaware 0 0 There are no commercial airports in Delaware.



