《那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》第59期:飛越州(2)

Atlanta's airport is the busiest in the world, with more passengers and flights than Tokyo, London, Beijing, Chicago, or Los Angeles. It's the main hub airport for Delta Air Lines-until recently the world's largest airline-which means passengers taking Delta flights will often connect through Atlanta.

這個機場是全世界最爲繁忙的機場，乘客和航班吞吐量都超過東京、倫敦、北京、芝加哥以及洛杉磯。這個機場同時還是達美航空的主要樞紐，而達美航空在不久前還是全世界最大的航空公司，這意味着乘坐達美航空的旅客們經常會到亞特蘭大轉機。

Thanks to the large volume of flights from Atlanta to the northeast US, 20 percent of all Atlanta flights cross Virginia and 25 percent cross North Carolina, contributing substantially to the totals for each state.

得益於從亞特蘭大出發前往美國東北部的大量航班，其中有20％的航班經過弗吉尼亞上空，有25％經過北卡羅來納上空，這些航班貢獻了這兩個州大部分的被飛越次數。

However, Atlanta isn't the biggest contributor to Virginia's totals. The airport with the most flights over Virginia was a surprise to me.

然而對弗吉尼亞被飛越次數貢獻最大的並非亞特蘭大，貢獻最大的這個機場讓我出乎意料。

Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) seems an unlikely source of Virginia-crossing flights, but Canada's largest airport contributes more flights over Virginia than New York's JFK and LaGuardia airports combined.

多倫多皮爾遜國際機場乍看起來一點也不像弗吉尼亞被飛越次數的傑出貢獻者，但其實這個加拿大最大的機場飛往弗吉尼亞的航班比紐約的約翰•肯尼迪國際機場和拉瓜迪亞機場的航班加在一起還要多。

Part of the reason for Toronto's dominance is that it has many direct flights to the Caribbean and South America, which cross US airspace on the way to their destinations.1 In addition to Virginia, Toronto is also the chief source of flights over West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York.

造成這一現象的部分原因在於，多倫多機場有許多到加勒比和南美洲的直達航班，這些航班在半路上會經過美國空域。1除了弗吉尼亞，多倫多機場同時還是所有飛越西弗吉尼亞、賓夕法尼亞和紐約的航班中的主要貢獻者。

This map shows, for each state, which airport is the source of the most flights over it:

下面這張地圖中顯示了對每個州而言，哪個機場貢獻了最多的飛越航班：

Flyover states by ratio

按比率來算的飛越州

Another possible definition of “flyover state” is the state that has the highest ratio of flights over it to flights to it. By this measure, the flyover states are, for the most part, simply the least dense states. The top ten include, predictably, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho, and the Daktoas.

“飛越州”另一個可能的定義是，擁有最高飛越航班與飛抵航班之比的州。如果按照這種算法的話，絕大多數飛越州將是那些人口最稀少的州，前十名包括懷俄明、阿拉斯加、蒙大拿、愛達荷以及達科塔。

The state with the highest ratio of flights-over-to-flights-to, however, is a surprise: Delaware.

然而出乎意料的是，具有最高飛越航班與飛抵航班比值的州竟然是：特拉華州。

A little digging turned up the very straightforward reason: Delaware has no airports.

稍微挖掘一下數據你就能一眼看出原因：特拉華州沒有機場。