Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport control tower. Photo source: Facebook
Of the top 10 busiest airports in the world, eight were located in the United States with two remaining in China, which shows encouraging signs of recovering traffic as the demand for leisure travel returns and COVID restrictions begin to ease.
Airports Council International (ACI) World’s report of the busiest airports worldwide for 2021 was released on Monday, and its results are a far cry from the 2020 rankings wherein China’s rapid recovery of domestic passenger traffic helped it to dominate the list last year.
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) was the world’s busiest airport prior to the pandemic, and maintained the top spot in the 2021 preliminary rankings, with over 75.7 million passengers flying in and out of the airport last year. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) ranked second on the list with 62.6 million passengers.
Denver International Airport (DEN) launched into third place with 58.8 million passengers, up from eighth place in 2020 and 16th in 2019.
The biggest improvement came from Orlando International Airport (MCO), which jumped to seventh place this year with 40.3 million passengers after ranking in the 27th position in 2020.
After ranking first on the list in 2020, Guangzhou Bai Yun International Airport slid to eighth on the list in 2021, dropping passenger traffic by 8%.
Despite the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions across the world, ACI’s preliminary rankings indicate the effects of the pandemic on global air travel. While US airports returned to the rankings with an increase in passengers from last year, overall passenger traffic across the world is down. ACI estimates 4.5 billion passengers were transported on airlines in 2021, which is down 50% from 2019 but up 25% from 2020.
“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. “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.”
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