Airports can be the most crowded and stressful places in
the world because of the slow-moving queues and bustling gates. Regardless of
the negative aspects associated with commercial air travel, on a general note,
it is an impressive system, with the biggest air transit hubs recording
passenger traffic numbers that rival the populations of large countries.
The Infographic used here has data from Airports Council International (ACI) to rank the top 10 busiest airports in the world, looking at total passengers enplaned and deplaned, with passengers in transit counted once.
The Most Bustling Airports in 2022
In 2022, global passenger traffic came near to 7 billion, an
increase of almost 54% from 2021, and a 74% recovery from pre-pandemic levels.
The table below gives a closer look at the data, alongside
the year-over-year increases at each airport:
|
Rank |
Airport |
City |
Passengers (2022) |
|
1 |
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) |
Atlanta |
93,699,630 |
|
2 |
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) |
Dallas |
73,362,946 |
|
3 |
Denver International Airport (DEN) |
Denver |
69,286,461 |
|
4 |
Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) |
Chicago |
68,340,619 |
|
5 |
Dubai International Airport (DXB) |
Dubai |
66,069,981 |
|
6 |
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) |
Los Angeles |
65,924,298 |
|
7 |
Istanbul Airport (IST) |
Istanbul |
64,289,107 |
|
8 |
Heathrow Airport (LHR) |
London |
61,614,508 |
|
9 |
Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) |
New Delhi |
59,490,074 |
|
10 |
Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) |
Paris |
57,474,033 |
According to the ACI Director General, these 10 airports
made up 10% of all passenger traffic in the world last year. Half of these
airports are in the U.S. and their numbers were largely maintained by domestic
travelers.
Although Atlanta’s airport saw the highest number of
passengers at nearly 94 million, London’s Heathrow airport saw passenger
traffic grow the most annually by over 217%.
In this dataset, such big percentage rise between 2021 and
2022 is typically linked to the scaling back or full removal of COVID-19
restrictions.
The Travel Industry Looking Ahead
Even though levels of passenger traffic globally is high,
the travel and tourism industry has actually not yet fully recovered to pre-pandemic
peaks, but it is getting close. A recent report from the World Travel &
Tourism Council found that the industry has recovered to 95% of its market size
in 2019.
Jobs also recovered in the travel industry with 21.6 million
workers added in 2022, hitting over 295 million globally and representing one
in 11 jobs worldwide. Expenditure by overseas tourists also hit a record growth
rate last year of 82%, totaling out to $1.1 trillion. On the whole, the trend
looks positive for those in travel and tourism.
In fact, many popular travel destinations have already had
spending exceed 2019 figures, 34 countries have seen their travel industries
return to pre-pandemic levels in terms of contribution to GDP.
“By the end of the year, the sector’s contribution will be
within touching distance of the 2019 peak. We expect 2024 to exceed 2019.”–
JULIA SIMPSON, WTTC PRESIDENT & CEO
While conflicts like the war in Ukraine have slowed down
recovery to some extent, recent moves by countries like China to reopen borders
will help encourage growth in the travel and tourism industries.
