Flying in Europe, it is about a 50/50 chance as to whether you get on the plane from a jet bridge or you take a bus to the plane parked on the tarmac. In contrast, most US airports have jet bridges, even when the plane is small unless it is a very small airport.
Why?
Land availability. European cities have been occupied for way longer, so there is a lot lower chance of some huge unused space for a massive airport. Smaller airports are more likely to have you board/unboard on the tarmac. Denver airport is more than 10x the size of the biggest airport in all of Europe. It’s also bigger than Zurich, the whole city is smaller than the Denver airport.
No way!? That’s insane. Wow. Wow. Thanks for this fact
Denver is the second largest airport in the world after Dammam, Saudi Arabia, which doesn’t even seem to use much of its enormous amount of land from a quick look.
Denver’s airport is relatively new, was built way outside of town before the city really had a chance to grow into it, and is about twice the size of Manhattan.
I guess it really earns that murderhorse
Bluecifer*
Most American airports are space constrained, including many of the oldest ones in the country. The old airports in the US generally use jet bridges even when they are constrained by space.
Jet bridges are also an access control system. It’s harder to wander off to another part of the tarmac if you can’t get to it in the first place.
It’s also probably cheaper to guard too, since locked doors and alarms don’t require healthcare, and you can push that duty off to flight attendants and gate employees.