Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport regained its title as the world’s busiest airport for passenger traffic in 2021, after losing the top spot to China’s Guangzhou Bai Yun International Airport in 2020, according to a new report from the Airports Council International (ACI) World.
The trade association’s report, which lists the top 10 busiest airports worldwide for 2021, shows encouraging signs of traffic recovery from the COVID pandemic as many previous busiest airports re-join top ranks.
Passenger Stats
Total global passengers in 2021 is estimated to be close to 4.5 billion, representing an increase of almost 25% from 2020, or a drop of more than 50% from 2019 results.
Passenger traffic at the top 10 busiest airports, representing collectively almost 10% of global traffic (463 million passengers), witnessed a gain of 51.8% from 2020, or a drop of 29.1% vis-à-vis their 2019 results.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL, 75.7 million passengers, +76.4%) is back at the top of 2021 rankings, followed by Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW, 62.5 million passengers, +58.7%), and Denver International Airport (DEN, 58.8 million passengers, +74.4%). After reaching the top rank in 2020, Guangzhou Bai Yun International Airport (CAN, 40.3 million passengers, -8.0%) slid to the eighth position in 2021.
Eight of the top 10 airports for passenger traffic are in the United States, with the two remaining in China.
All top 10 airports have a significant share of domestic traffic, the traffic segment that has been leading global recovery. The biggest improvement recorded was from Orlando International Airport (MCO, 40.4 million passengers, +86.7%) that jumped from 27th position in 2020 to the seventh spot in 2021.
Encouragement
“The ACI World passenger traffic rankings tell the story of an encouraging trend of recovery, with most of the recurrent busiest airports pre-COVID-19 back at the top,” said ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira said. “Although we are cautious that recovery could face multiple headwinds, the momentum created by reopening plans by countries could lead to an uptick in travel in the second half of 2022.
“As such, ACI World continues to advocate to governments to follow the data and ease travel restrictions to safely restore the movement of people, goods, and services. This will provide travelers with more travel options and boost the overall recovery through aviation’s unique role in boosting trade, tourism, investment and creating jobs.”
In addition to passenger traffic, the ACI World report includes data and airport rankings for cargo volumes and aircraft movements. The group’s full announcement is available here.