Atlanta 8217;s airport is the busiest in the world, with more passengers and flights than Tokyo, London, Beijing, Chicago, or Los Angeles. It 8217;s the main hub airport for Delta Air Lines-until recently the world 8217;s largest airline-which means passengers taking Delta flights will often connect through Atlanta.
这个机场是全世界最为繁忙的机场，乘客和航班吞吐量都超过东京、伦敦、北京、芝加哥以及洛杉矶。这个机场同时还是达美航空的主要枢纽，而达美航空在不久前还是全世界最大的航空公司，这意味着乘坐达美航空的旅客们经常会到亚特兰大转机。
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.
得益于从亚特兰大出发前往美国东北部的大量航班，其中有20％的航班经过弗吉尼亚上空，有25％经过北卡罗来纳上空，这些航班贡献了这两个州大部分的被飞越次数。
However, Atlanta isn 8217;t the biggest contributor to Virginia 8217;s totals. The airport with the most flights over Virginia was a surprise to me.
然而对弗吉尼亚被飞越次数贡献最大的并非亚特兰大，贡献最大的这个机场让我出乎意料。
Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) seems an unlikely source of Virginia-crossing flights, but Canada 8217;s largest airport contributes more flights over Virginia than New York 8217;s JFK and LaGuardia airports combined.
多伦多皮尔逊国际机场乍看起来一点也不像弗吉尼亚被飞越次数的杰出贡献者，但其实这个加拿大最大的机场飞往弗吉尼亚的航班比纽约的约翰•肯尼迪国际机场和拉瓜迪亚机场的航班加在一起还要多。
Part of the reason for Toronto 8217;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.
造成这一现象的部分原因在于，多伦多机场有许多到加勒比和南美洲的直达航班，这些航班在半路上会经过美国空域。1除了弗吉尼亚，多伦多机场同时还是所有飞越西弗吉尼亚、宾夕法尼亚和纽约的航班中的主要贡献者。
This map shows, for each state, which airport is the source of the most flights over it:
下面这张地图中显示了对每个州而言，哪个机场贡献了最多的飞越航班：
Flyover states by ratio
按比率来算的飞越州
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.
“飞越州”另一个可能的定义是，拥有最高飞越航班与飞抵航班之比的州。如果按照这种算法的话，绝大多数飞越州将是那些人口最稀少的州，前十名包括怀俄明、阿拉斯加、蒙大拿、爱达荷以及达科塔。
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，具有最高飞越航班与飞抵航班比值的州竟然是：特拉华州。
A little digging turned up the very straightforward reason: Delaware has no airports.
稍微挖掘一下数据你就能一眼看出原因：特拉华州没有机场。