eSIM guides, one airport at a time
The question as the wheels touch down is not whether the country has coverage — it is when the line comes up, and whether the airport Wi-Fi is needed to switch it on.
This index covers 87 airports across 20 destinations. Each page says where the line usually registers, what the free terminal Wi-Fi is good for, and what the ride into town asks of a data plan.
Airports in Japan
NRT — TokyoJapan's long-haul gateway sits about an hour outside Tokyo, so your line matters most on the ride you still have ahead of you.Read more HND — TokyoHaneda sits on Tokyo Bay close to the city, yet many international arrivals land at hours when the train timetable is not on your side.Read more KIX — OsakaKansai sits on an artificial island in Osaka Bay, so every route out of it begins with a crossing before the city starts.Read more ITM — OsakaOsaka's domestic airport sits in the suburbs much closer to town than Kansai, and almost everyone walking through it is flying within Japan.Read more CTS — SapporoHokkaido's gateway has a railway station beneath the terminal, and is one of the few airports where winter weather genuinely rewrites your plans.Read more FUK — FukuokaFukuoka sits unusually close to its own city centre, close enough that a few subway stops put you in the Hakata district.Read more NGO — NagoyaBuilt on an artificial island in Ise Bay, Centrair moves you from gate to train platform with unusually little fuss.Read more OKA — OkinawaOkinawa's gateway has a monorail into Naha, but most people are here to pick up a rental car and drive north.Read more HIJ — HiroshimaHiroshima's airport sits on high ground well outside the city with no rail link, so everyone leaves it by road.Read more SDJ — SendaiThe gateway to the Tohoku region runs a train from beneath the terminal into Sendai Station in under half an hour.Read more
Airports in Thailand
BKK — BangkokThailand's main gateway and the region's busiest transfer point — with the line already live before you land, everything after immigration is just walking.Read more DMK — BangkokBangkok's low-cost airport is smaller and quicker to walk, but the ride into the city is the part where you genuinely need data.Read more HKT — PhuketAn island airport at the far north end of the island, and the drive to the beach most people actually stay on is longer than they expect.Read more CNX — Chiang MaiOne of the closest airports to its own city in Thailand — the old town is minutes away once you are out of the door.Read more
Airports in India
DEL — DelhiIndia's busiest gateway, where a line that is already live on landing spares you every verification step waiting in the arrivals hall.Read more BOM — MumbaiAn airport sitting inside the city itself, where the distance into town is short but the time it takes is anyone's guess.Read more BLR — BengaluruAn airport well north of the city, which turns the ride into town into a long leg you want connected the whole way.Read more MAA — ChennaiThe gateway to southern India, with a metro line at the airport that makes the arrival simpler than people expect.Read more HYD — HyderabadAn airport set out of town to the south, linked by a fast road that makes the journey unusually predictable for India.Read more CCU — KolkataOne building handles both domestic and international, which makes arriving here simpler than at India's other big airports.Read more GOI — GoaA coastal airport in the south of the state, where everyone lands and then still has a long ride to their own beach.Read more COK — KochiAn airport a fair way from the old town, and the starting point for backwater trips where coverage is not even everywhere.Read more JAI — JaipurA small airport close enough to town that you reach the old city before your phone has cooled down.Read more
Airports in Sri Lanka
Airports in United Kingdom
LHR — LondonBritain's biggest airport, where the walk is long, the border queue is real, and three different trains run into town.Read more LGW — LondonLondon's second airport: two terminals on opposite sides, a short train ride in, and a choice of city stations at the end of it.Read more STN — LondonA single-terminal low-cost base where the flight is cheap but the hour-long train ride into London is still ahead of you.Read more LTN — LondonA compact airport north of London where the trip into town is a two-stage journey from the moment you step outside.Read more MAN — ManchesterThe main gateway to northern England, with terminals linked by long walkways and a station at the end of them.Read more EDI — EdinburghScotland's main airport: one terminal, and a tram that runs straight into the heart of the old city.Read more BHX — BirminghamA midlands airport where a short automated link and a ten-minute train put you in the city centre.Read more GLA — GlasgowScotland's west-coast airport, where there is no airport railway and everyone leaves by bus or taxi.Read more
Airports in Italy
FCO — RomeItaly's main gateway, where the train into Rome leaves from under the terminal and your line should be live well before passport control.Read more MXP — MilanMilan's long-haul airport sits well outside the city, and the way in is a train of about fifty minutes across open countryside.Read more LIN — MilanMilan's small city-side airport, close enough that you can be in the centre not long after walking out of the hall.Read more VCE — VeniceA lagoon-edge airport where the onward leg is a boat, and the crossing is where signal behaves differently from a city street.Read more NAP — NaplesAn airport unusually close to its city, and the starting point for boats to Capri and the cliff road down the Amalfi coast.Read more BLQ — BolognaThe gateway to central Italy that most people use as a starting block before a high-speed train somewhere else.Read more PSA — PisaTuscany's small airport, used by most people as a way in to Florence and the hill towns beyond it.Read more CTA — CataniaSicily's eastern gateway, where most people collect a hire car and drive up Etna or along the coast.Read more FLR — FlorenceA very small airport right beside the city, with a tram that reaches central Florence in a short ride.Read more
Airports in Norway
OSL — OsloA long timber terminal with a railway station underneath it, and for many people the start of a drive up into the mountains.Read more BGO — BergenThe gateway to the fjords, where signal genuinely thins once the ferry leaves the quay and a mountain wall takes half the sky.Read more TRD — TrondheimA fjord-side airport with a railway station attached, and the changeover point for people heading further north after the lights.Read more
Airports in Finland
Airports in United States
JFK — New YorkNew York's long-haul gateway, where the immigration queue runs long enough that having a live line before you join it genuinely pays off.Read more EWR — New YorkNew York's New Jersey gateway, with a cleaner rail exit than its neighbours, though it asks you to change trains once.Read more LGA — New YorkNew York's closest airport to Manhattan, mostly a domestic one, and the one with no direct rail link of its own.Read more LAX — Los AngelesAmerica's Pacific gateway, an airport nearly everyone leaves on four wheels rather than on rails.Read more SFO — San FranciscoA bayside airport with a proper train into the city, and fog that keeps the schedule negotiable.Read more ORD — ChicagoA continental connecting hub with a city rail line that runs into downtown around the clock.Read more MIA — MiamiThe American gateway that faces Latin America: humid, busy, and bilingual from the moment you land.Read more MCO — OrlandoThe family and theme-park airport, where the whole trip runs on queue apps and in-park maps.Read more LAS — Las VegasAn airport so close to the main strip that you can pick out the hotels from the window on the way down.Read more SEA — SeattleAmerica's north-west gateway, with light rail straight into town and onward routes towards Alaska and Canada.Read more BOS — BostonAn airport on the water and remarkably close to downtown, reached through a tunnel under the harbour.Read more IAD — Washington, D.C.The capital's international gateway, a fair way out of town, now with a metro line reaching it.Read more
Airports in Mexico
MEX — Mexico CityThe main gateway into Mexico, where sorting out your ride before you walk out of the hall matters more than anything else.Read more CUN — CancunA holiday airport where the walk from customs to your actual car passes a long gauntlet of people offering you something else.Read more GDL — GuadalajaraThe airport of Mexico's second city, where the only way out is the road and the car is the thing to settle first.Read more MTY — MonterreyThe airport of Mexico's northern industrial city, where most arrivals are here to work and already have a meeting waiting.Read more SJD — Los CabosAn airport at the tip of a desert peninsula, where everyone still has a real drive ahead of them to reach the water.Read more TIJ — TijuanaAn airport pressed right against the border, where some passengers land and walk straight across a bridge into another country.Read more BJX — Leon and GuanajuatoAn airport that belongs to no single city, serving instead a handful of old highland towns an hour or so apart.Read more
Airports in Costa Rica
Airports in Australia
SYD — SydneyAustralia's main long-haul gateway, where the line usually registers before the passport queue and a train beneath the terminal reaches the city in about a quarter of an hour.Read more MEL — MelbourneAn airport whose only way out is a road, by coach, taxi or hire car, which makes a working line part of the ride rather than an extra.Read more BNE — BrisbaneQueensland's northern gateway, with a train straight from the terminal into the city and a long coastal drive waiting at the end of it.Read more PER — PerthThe western gateway where the city is close but everything else is very far away, which makes distance the real story behind any data plan here.Read more OOL — Gold CoastA small airport on a state border, where in summer the clock on your phone and the clock in town do not always agree.Read more CNS — CairnsThe gateway to the reef and the rainforest, where the town is close but most of what you came for happens outside coverage.Read more ADL — AdelaideA single-terminal airport surprisingly close to the city, and the starting line for drives out to the vineyards and the dry country beyond.Read more HBA — HobartThe way into Tasmania, where the trip really begins once you drive out of town towards forest and mountain country that goes completely quiet.Read more
Airports in New Zealand
AKL — AucklandNew Zealand's main gateway, with no rail link into the city, so everyone leaves by road or on a connecting flight.Read more CHC — ChristchurchThe starting point for driving the South Island, where mountain passes and high country take you out of signal for hours at a time.Read more ZQN — QueenstownA small airport among mountains where weather rewrites the schedule, and your own line matters most on the day a flight is cancelled.Read more WLG — WellingtonThe capital's airport, where wind rewrites the schedule and the next leg for many is the ferry across to the South Island.Read more