Midway’s route data records how many US airports have nonstop service to each major US city, and that count decides how much of a distributed team arrives without a connection. The ten cities below are ordered by it. Every avoided connection saves 30–80% on the ticket and half a day of travel, per the arithmetic in the offsite cost guide.
The count is not the whole answer. A city can have wide coverage and still skew regional, or good coverage and severe peak-season pricing. The notes under each entry cover what the number leaves out, and the last section explains how the order changes once you use your own team’s airports instead of a nationwide roster.
1. Denver — around 70 nonstop origins
Around 70 US airports fly nonstop to Denver, which is why it appears in nearly every multi-city Midway search a US team runs. It is a United and Southwest stronghold near the middle of the country, with New York arriving in about 4h15 and San Francisco in under three hours. Autumn weather is reliable, venue stock is deep, and the mountains are 90 minutes away. Ski-season weekends compress hotel availability from December onward, so a Q1 offsite needs its room block early. More in the Denver city profile.
2. Atlanta — around 70 nonstop origins
Around 70 US airports fly nonstop to Atlanta, the East-leaning mirror of Denver. Delta’s main hub is the busiest passenger airport in the world, and for teams weighted toward the eastern half of the country Atlanta is often the lowest total-travel-time option on the board. Ground costs run well below coastal-city rates. It rarely wins the excitement vote and often wins the attendance vote. See the Atlanta profile.
3. Dallas–Fort Worth — around 70 nonstop origins
Around 70 US airports fly nonstop to Dallas–Fort Worth, American’s largest hub, with Love Field adding a second airport in the same metro. Hotel rates are among the lowest of any major US market. DFW is the pragmatic pick for cost-conscious teams with headcount everywhere, and what you are buying is convenience rather than scenery. The DFW profile covers the details.
4. Chicago — around 67 nonstop origins
Around 67 US airports fly nonstop to Chicago, so almost any US roster lands without a connection. Downtown venue quality is the strongest in the middle of the country, and summer through October is a good offsite backdrop. November through March is a weather gamble, which costs less when nobody on the roster is connecting through anywhere. See the Chicago profile.
5. Minneapolis — around 68 nonstop origins
Around 68 US airports fly nonstop to Minneapolis, coverage on par with Chicago at hotel rates well below it. Midway’s city-pair data keeps surfacing Minneapolis as the most time-balanced meeting point for coast-to-coast pairs: Tampa and Seattle land within a minute of each other. Best May to October. A January offsite here is a leadership decision with consequences.
6. Las Vegas — around 67 nonstop origins
Around 67 US airports fly nonstop to Las Vegas, so nearly every origin on a US roster has a direct flight. The city has more group-event infrastructure per square mile than anywhere in America, and midweek room blocks are cheap. Whether it suits your company culture is a separate question from whether the flights work. The Las Vegas profile takes the group-trip angle.
7. Nashville — around 63 nonstop origins
Around 63 US airports fly nonstop to Nashville, and BNA keeps adding routes, so most US rosters arrive direct. San Francisco is about 4h30. The venue, restaurant and music mix is built for groups, which also means weekend pricing peaks hard: a Sunday-to-Wednesday offsite costs substantially less than a Thursday-to-Saturday one. See the Nashville profile.
8. Austin — around 58 nonstop origins
Around 58 US airports fly nonstop to Austin, and the map keeps expanding: New York is under four hours, Seattle about 4h20. Austin’s offsite economy of venues, caterers and out-of-office activities is mature, and costs have followed it upward. October, with F1 and ACL in the same month, is effectively a blackout for hotel blocks. More in the Austin profile.
9. Phoenix–Scottsdale — around 67 nonstop origins
Around 67 US airports fly nonstop to Phoenix, coverage on a par with Chicago’s, and the Scottsdale resorts are built for this exact use case. A January offsite in 70-degree sun does measurable things for attendance. June through September is the inverse, and worth avoiding outright. It pairs naturally with rosters weighted West and Central.
10. San Diego — around 55 nonstop origins
Around 55 US airports fly nonstop to San Diego, the lowest coverage on this list and the one teams are most willing to accept a longer flight for. Boston is a six-hour nonstop, which is long, and it exists, as do nonstops from the rest of the usual roster. Year-round weather removes the seasonal-planning variable entirely. For West-weighted teams it is often the strongest morale-per-dollar option on the board.
The near-misses
Charleston is a genuinely good offsite town with a hard constraint: around 39 nonstop origins and no San Francisco nonstop at all. It works for teams east of the Mississippi; a bicoastal team should budget a connection or pick again. New Orleans (~48 origins) clears the bar for most rosters and is the value alternative to Nashville. Salt Lake City (~62) is the other mountain option, with better coverage than Austin and half the hotel rate of Denver in ski season.
Ranking for your own roster
This order assumes a roster spread evenly across the country. Yours is spread across your specific cities, and that changes it: a Southeast-heavy team should have Atlanta at the top, a West-heavy one San Diego or Phoenix.
The cluster hub has the full method, the step-by-step guide walks through applying it to a real roster, and the remote team retreat planning guide picks up once the city is settled. For how these cities earned their coverage in the first place, see America’s most connected cities.
Rank these cities against your own team’s airports, and the results carry the cheapest direct round-trip from each origin. Those prices come from Kayak’s search data, so a low-traffic destination can come back without one.