Flight Relations

Distance becomes, less and less important when traveling these days. Not distance but time is the measurement of a long or a short journey. In the case of air connections even time is not so important any more but the existence of the link in the first place. You do not go to from Amsterdam to Barcelona instead of Chatrapur (city in India) because it is closer but because there is a link between the two embedded between them. This makes it most cases much more relevant and therefor much more efficient to travel between Amsterdam and Barcelona.
In the maps shown here, the direct flight relations between Tokyo, Paris and New York to the world are shown. The more airline companies flying on a certain connection the bigger the spot. In the end all four maps are placed on top of each other. This reveals the best connected spots in the world seen from, Tokyo, Paris and New York. Of course all the geographical close by relations of these three cities profit. But for instance Istanbul, Helsinki, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Bangkok are lightened spots on this map. A map of something that can be called the Global City starts to pop out. Of course the rest of the world is reachable within 24 hours just like the spots on this map. But there is a predestined relation between certain places on the globe that is not there for others just because of the fact that there are airline connection between them.