Misc

Ranked: The Busiest Airports in the World

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4 weeks ago

May 19, 2025

Dorothy Neufeld

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Ranked: The Busiest Airports in the World

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Key Takeaways

With 108 million passengers in 2024, the Atlanta airport is the busiest in the world, a position it has held for a quarter century.
Dubai’s airport ranks second globally, with 92 million passengers, thanks to its strategic location between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Between 2019 and 2024, New Delhi’s airport jumped from 28th to 7th spot in the annual rankings from Airports Council International.

In 2024, global air travel hit 9.5 billion passengers— a five billion increase since 2021.

Together, the 10 busiest airports transported 855 million passengers, or 9% of traffic globally. While air traffic has finally surged past pre-pandemic levels, it is not without its challenges of staffing crises, tech outages, and aircraft incidents.

This graphic shows the busiest airports in the world, based on data from the Airports Council International.

The Top 10 Busiest Airports in the World in 2024

Below, we show the airports with the highest number of passengers globally as air travel increased 9% over the year:

Rank	Airport	Country	Airport Code	Number of Passengers in 2024	Annual Change
1	Atlanta	🇺🇸 U.S.	ATL	108M	3%
2	Dubai	🇦🇪 UAE	DXB	92M	6%
3	Dallas/Fort Worth	🇺🇸 U.S.	DFW	88M	7%
4	Tokyo	🇯🇵 Japan	HND	86M	9%
5	London	🇬🇧 UK	LHR	84M	6%
6	Denver	🇺🇸 U.S.	DEN	83M	6%
7	Istanbul	🇹🇷 Turkiye	IST	80M	5%
8	Chicago	🇺🇸 U.S.	ORD	80M	8%
9	New Delhi	🇮🇳 India	DEL	78M	8%
10	Shanghai	🇨🇳 China	PVG	77M	41%

Represents total passengers enplaned and deplaned, with passengers in transit counted once.

As we can see, four of the top 10 busiest airports in the world are in the U.S.—led by the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

Notably, Atlanta serves as a connecting hub to domestic and international travelers, owing to its position between North America, Europe, and Latin America. Adding to this, it has 150 non-stop destinations in six continents.

Ranking in second is the Dubai International Airport, with a record 92 million passengers in 2024. Overall, 106 international airlines fly into this hub, reflecting Dubai’s growing prominence as a center for business and investment.

Meanwhile, Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport saw the largest rise in the rankings, up from 21st in 2023 to 10th overall. Driving its 41% surge in passengers was the resumption of international flights and visa policy expansion.