Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport retained its spot as the world’s busiest airport for passenger traffic in 2018 but Chicago O’Hare International Airport has taken over as the busiest for aircraft movements, according to the Airports Council International (ACI).
The world’s top three airports for passenger traffic volume – Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Beijing Capital International Airport, and Dubai International Airport respectively – have held their positions while Los Angeles International Airport (fourth) and Tokyo Haneda International Airport (fifth) have swapped places in the top five from last year
The report found that the world’s airport accommodated 8.8 billion passengers, and 99.9 million aircraft movements in 2018.
“The World Airport Traffic Report shows that, even as smaller airports around the world continue to make strong gains, the largest hub airports continue to grow,” ACI World director general, Angela Gittens said. “There were 16 airports handling more than 40 million passengers per annum in 2008 and there are now 54.
“Collectively, these airports achieved a year-over-year passenger traffic growth of +5.1% in 2018 which is significant considering a large proportion of these airports are in the mature and capacity constrained markets of North America and Europe.”
Most of the world’s fastest-growing airports are located in emerging markets, a significant proportion of them being in the Asia-Pacific region. As many as 12 of the fastest-growing top 30 airports in 2018 are located in either China or India.
“India’s move towards a more liberalized aviation market and the nation’s strengthening economic fundamentals have helped it become one of the fastest-growing markets with its traffic growing rapidly in a relatively short time,” Gittens said.
“Major Russian airports also experienced significant gains in traffic following on from difficult economic times in 2015 and 2016 and they also received a boost in traffic numbers as a result of the FIFA World Cup.”
