Ranked: The Busiest Airports in the World

The New Diplomat
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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.

Credit: Visual Capitalist

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