INTERNATIONAL. Dubai International (DXB) maintained its position as the world’s busiest airport in 2021, according to newly published data from Airports Council International (ACI).
The UAE airport served 29.1 million passengers, up by +12.7% year-on-year but down by two-thirds on 2019. In the list of the top ten international airports, DXB was followed by Istanbul, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Hamad International, London Heathrow, Antalya, Madrid and Cancún.
In the overall rankings (domestic plus international), Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport returned to top spot in 2021, with 75.7 million passengers, up +76.4% year-on-year. It was followed by Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (62.5 million passengers, +58.7% year-on-year), and Denver International Airport (58.8 million passengers, +74.4%).
After attaining number one status in 2020, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (40.3 million passengers, -8%) was ranked eighth in 2021.
Eight of the top ten airports for total passenger traffic are in the USA with the two remaining in China. All top ten airports have a significant share of domestic traffic, which has been leading global recovery.
The biggest improvement recorded was from Orlando International Airport (40.4 million passengers, +86.7%) that jumped from 27th position in 2020 to seventh spot in 2021.
Passenger traffic at the ten 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% compared to their 2019 results.
The world airport rankings are based on the preliminary compilation of 2021 global data from airports around the world.
Total global passenger volume in 2021 is estimated at around 4.5 billion, representing an increase of almost +25% from 2020, or a drop of more than -50% from 2019 results.
“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,” 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 travellers with more travel options and propel the overall recovery through aviation’s unique role in boosting trade, tourism, investment and creating jobs.”
