Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport still isn’t quite as crowded as it was before the pandemic, but you’re not going to find a lot of extra room when you’re making your connection.
The Atlanta airport has been named the busiest in the world, in terms of overall passengers, in the annual rankings from industry group Airports Council International World. This is the third consecutive world’s busiest ranking for the airport (ACI World did not issue rankings in 2020.)
All totaled 93,699,630 people passed through Hartsfield last year. That’s a 24% jump from the 2021 totals, but still falls more than 15% below the passenger count in 2019.
Atlanta’s lead over second place Dallas/Fort Worth is an extensive one, too, with a gap of more than 20 million passengers.
U.S. airports claimed the top four spots on the list, with Dubai the only international terminal in the top five. (Dubai also topped the International Passengers rankings.)
Globally, the number of airline passengers jumped to almost 7 billion last year, a 54% increase from 2021. Overall, though, the total number of flyers was more than 25% lower than 2019.
“While US airport hubs were able to recover quicker due to their strong domestic market, we are now witnessing global hubs joining upper ranks—including Dubai, Istanbul, and London Heathrow airport,” said Luis Felipe de Oliveira, ACI World's director general in a statement.
Here’s a look at how the 10 busiest airports shook out, along with last year’s passenger counts.
- Atlanta – 93,699,630
- Dallas/Fort Worth – 73,362,946
- Denver – 69,286,461
- Chicago – 68,340,619
- Dubai – 66,069,981
- Los Angeles – 65,924,298
- Istanbul – 64,289,107
- London-Heathrow – 61,614,508
- New Delhi – 59,490,074
- Paris – 57,474,033
