According to CIA, there are ~45,500 airports in the world, of which ~16,000 are in the USA alone. Airports can be military, private owned, or commercial. Many commercial airports do not have regular passenger flights operated by commercial airlines, but there are ~10,000 worldwide that do. Most commercial airports service domestic flights only, and International airports (that have customs and border control facilities) are ~1200 worldwide. Only a small subset of those airports are equipped with runways and facilities to accommodate large airliners, like Airbus 380 or Boeing 787.

(By: Skytrax)

1. Singapore (SIN)
2. Doha (DOH)
3. Tokyo Haneda (HND)
4. Seoul (ICN)
5. Tokyo Narita (NRT)
6. Hong Kong (HKG)
7. Paris (CDG)
8. Rome (FCO)
9. Munich (MUC)
10. Zurich (ZRH)

(million International passengers)

1. Dubai (DXB) 92
2. London Heathrow (LHR) 79
3. Seoul (ICN) 71
4. Singapore (SIN) 67
5. Amsterdam (AMS) 66
6. Paris (CDG) 64
7. Istanbul (IST) 63
8. Frankfurt (FRA) 56
9. Hong Kong (HKG) 53
10. Doha (DOH) 52

• Adelaide (ADL)
• Brisbane (BNE)
• Cairns (CNS)
• Darwin (DRW)
• Melbourne (MEL)
• Perth (PER)
• Sydney (SYD)

ADL, CNS, DRW actually have few international flights, and for most practical purposes Australians travel internationally via one of four airports: SYD, MEL, BNE or PER.

The following maps show international destinations that can be reached from/to one of the seven Australian international airports by direct non-stop flights. These destinations are considered hubs for stopover and connecting flights to other destinations etc. Maps do not include "Australian backyard" (Bali, Fiji, Vanuatu, etc) destinations.

When traveling between Australia and Europe/Americas your first departure segment out of Australia and last arrival segment into Australia will be along one of the flights shown in the those maps. Choosing one such flight determines the airlines available for the entire travel itinerary.