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Visualized: The World’s Busiest Airports, by Passenger Count

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the world's busiest airports by passengers

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Visualized: The World’s Busiest Airports, by Passenger Count

Airports, with their slow-moving queues and bustling gates, can be some of the most crowded, stressful places in the world. Despite the negatives associated with commercial air travel, overall it’s an impressive system, with the biggest air transit hubs recording passenger traffic numbers that rival the populations of large countries.

The infographic above uses data from Airports Council International (ACI) to rank the top 10 busiest airports in the world, looking at total passengers enplaned and deplaned, with passengers in transit counted once.

The Most Bustling Airports in 2022

In 2022, worldwide passenger traffic came near to 7 billion, an increase of almost 54% from 2021, and a 74% recovery from pre-pandemic levels.

Here’s a closer look at the data, alongside the year-over-year increases at each airport:

RankAirportCityPassengers (2022)Change vs. 2021
#1Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)🇺🇸 Atlanta93,699,63024%
#2Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)🇺🇸 Dallas73,362,94618%
#3Denver International Airport (DEN)🇺🇸 Denver69,286,46118%
#4Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)🇺🇸 Chicago68,340,61927%
#5Dubai International Airport (DXB)🇦🇪 Dubai66,069,981127%
#6Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)🇺🇸 Los Angeles65,924,29837%
#7Istanbul Airport (IST)🇹🇷 Istanbul64,289,10774%
#8Heathrow Airport (LHR)🇬🇧 London61,614,508218%
#9Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL)🇮🇳 New Delhi59,490,07460%
#10Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG)🇫🇷 Paris57,474,033119%

These 10 airports made up 10% of all passenger traffic in the world last year. Half of these airports are in the U.S. and their numbers were largely buoyed by domestic travelers, according to the ACI Director General.

While Atlanta’s airport saw the highest number of passengers at nearly 94 million, London’s Heathrow airport saw passenger traffic grow the most annually by over 217%.

In this dataset, such big percentage increases between 2021 and 2022 are usually linked to the scaling back or full removal of COVID-19 restrictions.

The Travel Industry Looking Ahead

Despite high levels of passenger traffic globally, the travel and tourism industry has actually not yet fully recovered to pre-pandemic peaks, but it is getting close. A recent report from the World Travel & Tourism Council found that the industry has recovered to 95% of its market size in 2019.

Jobs also recovered in the industry with 21.6 million workers added in 2022, hitting over 295 million globally and representing one in 11 jobs worldwide. Spending by overseas tourists also hit a record growth rate last year of 82%, totaling out to $1.1 trillion. Overall, the trend is looking positive for those in travel and tourism.

In fact, many popular travel destinations have already had spending exceed 2019 figures, with 34 countries seeing their travel industries return to pre-pandemic levels of contribution to GDP.

“By the end of the year, the sector’s contribution will be within touching distance of the 2019 peak. We expect 2024 to exceed 2019.”– Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO

While conflicts like the war in Ukraine have hindered recovery somewhat, recent moves by countries like China to reopen borders will help bolster growth in the travel and tourism industries.

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Misc

Ranked: Global Airlines with the Most Plane Crashes

Considering there are tens of millions of flights per year, major plane crashes are actually extremely rare.

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A cropped bar chart showing the most plane crashes by airlines, current up to September 2023.

Ranked: Global Airlines With the Most Plane Crashes

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Before flight was even invented, humans have been fascinated by the vast skies above them, and for obvious reasons. There is inherent marvel in defying something as fundamental as gravity; in quite literally, reaching for the stars.

And from the early days of military use, the aviation industry is now critical to the movement of goods and people around the world.

Nevertheless, there are accidents, and while few and far between, their scale and tragedy tend to leave a big impact on collective psyches. But which airline companies have seen the most number of incidents?

Using research published by Executive Flyers on September 19, 2023, we rank global airlines based on the number of their plane crashes.

Which Global Airline Has Had the Most Crashes?

Air France and American Airlines tie for most plane crashes, with 11 each.

Notably two of American’s incidents happened on September 11th, 2001, as did two from United Airlines’ seven crashes.

RankAirlineNumber of
plane crashes
1American Airlines11
1Air France11
2China Airlines9
2Korean Air9
3Pakistan International Airlines8
4United Airlines7
5Egyptair6
5Ethiopian Airlines6
5Thai Airways6
6American Eagle5
6Continental Airlines5
6Lufthansa5

Note: American Eagle is the brand name of a regional branch of American Airlines. Continental Airlines merged with United in 2012.

China Airlines and Korean Air also tie with nine crashes each, followed by Pakistan International Airlines with eight accidents.

While many plane crashes do not result in fatalities, here are some examples that were particularly deadly:

  • Air France: In June 2009, Flight 477 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing all 228 onboard.
  • Air China: In May 2002, Flight 611 disintegrated mid-air due to repair faults, killing all 225 onboard.
  • United Airlines: In Sept 1965, Flight 389 crashed while landing in Salt Lake City, killing 43 of 91 passengers.
  • Thai Airlines: In Aug 1987, Flight 365 crashed near Phuket, killing all 83 onboard.

The much-covered disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in 2014 prompted an overhaul of airline regulations and safety measures including better satellite tracking and improved training for crews during emergency situations.

And aside from pilot error, aircraft models themselves can often be the cause of accidents. Two Boeing 737 Max planes crashed in 2018–19, stemming from issues with the model’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System system, a flight control software designed to prevent stalls.

Finally, hostile airspace has also caused aircraft accidents. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 were shot down by Russian separatist forces and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2014 and 2020 respectively.

How Safe is Air Travel?

It is useful to remember however that airlines have suffered a very small number of accidents throughout history. Considering there are tens of millions of flights per year, major crashes are actually extremely rare.

“If you take one flight a day, you would, on average, need to fly every day for 55,000 years before being involved in a fatal crash.” — Arnold Barnett, Professor of Statistics at MIT, via ABC News.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. has gone nearly 15 years without a major commercial airline crash, despite the more than 100 million flights and 10 billion passengers since then.

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