Arizona airports beef up international network

22 October 2026

Arizona is quickly expanding its international air travel options, with Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport leading the way. The state's airports now connect directly to 26 overseas destinations after adding service to major hubs like Paris, Munich, Taipei, and Toronto.

The new international routes reflect rising demand from both business and leisure travelers. Sharon Corrigan, vice president of aviation and commercial development at the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, said the expanded service speeds access to global travel and trade channels. "The growing number of international flights is answering to a real need from companies and individuals in search of nonstop links to key cities," she said. "It puts Arizona on a faster path to the rest of the world."

Sky Harbor’s expanding international network

The state now connects to 134 domestic destinations and 24 international ones, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation. Much of the growth has flowed through Phoenix Sky Harbor, which handled a record 24.5 million passengers in 2023. That figure is projected to jump 27% to 31.3 million by 2032, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Sky Harbor's international expansion accelerated in 2024 with the arrival of several new carriers. In May, Air France launched three flights a week to Paris, scaled to a first-year schedule of 35 and by the following summer had increased its summer service to five days per week. Later that year, Porter Airlines began Canada-bound service from Phoenix to Toronto, its second gateway into Canada from the U.S. Southwest. New routes to Tijuana, Cancun, and Puerto Vallarta also launched in 2024 to leap on market demand from both tourists and business travelers to and from Mexico.

New to 2025, AeroMexico resumed its nonstop route from Phoenix to Mexico City. And in January, Starlux Airlines launched its first intercontinental service from Phoenix to Taipei, Taiwan's capital. The added service slots into a robust roster of global flights that now connects Sky Harbor to 26 international destinations, with flights operated by airlines like American, Delta, JetBlue, and others. Last month, officials announced nonstop Phoenix–Munich flights starting in 2027 on Lufthansa.

Why travelers are using these routes

The intense pace of new route launches comes down to robust point-to-point demand from travelers seeking nonstop flights to major cities. Paris grows in popularity with every Olympics, and as Arizona's European trade and tourism links expand. Last year, Phoenix saw a 74% increase in the volume of goods trading between the Grand Canyon State and France, according to the Brookings Institution.

Meanwhile, Starlux Airlines said it opted to launch its U.S. service through Phoenix because of the airport's status as a key hub for both business and leadership development ties between the two economies. The airline regularly connects business executives and tech leaders between Phoenix and Taipei's innovation clusters and tech hubs.

The rising demand reflects a dash by air travelers to skip the extra stops and transfers that used to accompany connecting flights from the American Southwest. According to a study by Florida-based GlobalData, the growth in point-to-point nonstop flights reflected a rising inclusion in airline networks of both leisure and business travelers to the region. As the number of nonstop international flights relative to their total grew, the size of the local network economy grew, too.

More on this is available via GamblingKingz gambling guide.

Economic and cargo impact

The expansion in international flights maps into rising trade, commerce, and cargo flows, too.

At the start of 2025, Sky Harbor's international freight cargo grew to exceed $1 billion in imported and exported goods in 2024. The rising volumes reflected accelerated demand from companies that ship lighter and pricier components over larger volumes of heavier, lower-priced goods. Melanie Guerrero, Sky Harbor's director of cargo and property management, said the accelerated demand for international air cargo reflected heightened commodity demand and transparency in global shipments, which tend to rely on alternate shipping routes every month.

The network's airlines have flanked their international passenger services with rapid-rail transit links to Phoenix that deliver to cargo terminals from across the city. More international flights, she added, tend to drive economic growth, often to rates of up to double what grows in an airport's broader regional population. A study by the economic analysis firm Webber Monster calculated that for every 1% growth in the total number of flights landing at the airport, the urban region's overall employment grew 1.11%.

Sky Harbor's expanding passenger services

Sky Harbor's leaders say a planned $455 million West Terminal will bring the airport up to 21st-century standards. AeroMexico's return to Phoenix will anchor the future of the new terminal, which will house 14 gates, including customs and border protection inspection facilities. Over time, the new facility will bring the airport's international passenger capacity up by 51%. That new capacity, corridor managers said, allows for a rapidly growing roster of international flights through routes that didn't exist a decade ago.

Yes, there's still work to do, including growth in routes to and from Africa and Eastern Europe. But with the new global flights, Phoenix is meeting a new wave of passenger and cargo traffic that also meets the airport's plan for a 2050 regeneration into a next-generation international travel hub—one that businesses are lining up to use, and fly into Phoenix.

What comes next

Lufthansa's flight arrival at the end of 2027 marks the latest in global airline executives' competition to deliver fast, nonstop international flights from Phoenix onto their routemaps. With a total international-first global route system and on-the-ground executives that increasingly argue for direct links that stream global business and trade, other airlines will follow, bringing new international flights to the state.

Phoenix airlines agree: A number of European, American, and Asian airlines are in talks with Sky Harbor about new routes to expand their position on the routes into the city. According to a source familiar with the talks, representatives from another major German carrier hinted at new Munich-bound flights, perhaps destined to land in Phoenix in spring 2028.