The top 10 busiest airports in the world for the year of 2021, published by the Airports Council International (ACI) World, show encouraging signs of traffic recovery as many previous busiest airports rejoin the top ranks.
The world airport rankings are based on data from airports around the world.
The number of passengers in the world is estimated to be close to 4.5 billion in 2021, representing an increase of almost 25% from 2020, or a drop of more than 50% from 2019.
The top 10 busiest airports saw a gain of 51.8% in passenger traffic from 2020 to 2019, but their results dropped by 29.1%.
Atlanta International Airport is back at the top of the rankings, followed by Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Denver International Airport.
Guangzhou Bai Yun International Airport fell to the eighth position in 2021, after reaching the top rank in 2020.
The United States has eight of the top 10 airports for passenger traffic. The traffic segment that has been leading the global recovery is domestic traffic.
The biggest improvement was from the airport that is now seventh in the world.
The ACI World passenger traffic rankings show an encouraging trend of recovery with most of the busiest airports back at the top.
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | Airport | 2021 | % vs 2020 | % vs 2019 |
| 1 | 2 | 1 | ATLANTA GA, US (ATL) | 75 704 760 | 76.4 | -31.5 |
| 2 | 4 | 10 | DALLAS/FORT WORTH TX, US (DFW) | 62 465 756 | 58.7 | -16.8 |
| 3 | 8 | 16 | DENVER CO, US (DEN) | 58 828 552 | 74.4 | -14.8 |
| 4 | 13 | 6 | CHICAGO IL, US (ORD) | 54 020 399 | 75.1 | -36.2 |
| 5 | 15 | 3 | LOS ANGELES CA, US (LAX) | 48 007 284 | 66.8 | -45.5 |
| 6 | 18 | 34 | CHARLOTTE NC, US (CLT) | 43 302 230 | 59.2 | -13.4 |
| 7 | 27 | 31 | ORLANDO FL, US (MCO) | 40 351 068 | 86.7 | -20.3 |
| 8 | 1 | 11 | GUANGZHOU, CN (CAN) | 40 259 401 | -8.0 | -45.1 |
| 9 | 3 | 24 | CHENGDU, CN (CTU) | 40 117 496 | -1.5 | -28.2 |
| 10 | 22 | 30 | LAS VEGAS NV, US (LAS) | 39 754 366 | 78.6 | -23.1 |
The total passengers enplaned and deplaned were counted.
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | Airport | 2021 | % vs 2020 | % vs 2019 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | DUBAI, AE (DXB) | 29 110 609 | 12.7 | -66.3 |
| 2 | 6 | 14 | ISTANBUL, TR (IST) | 26 466 169 | 66.0 | -33.1 |
| 3 | 2 | 3 | AMSTERDAM, NL (AMS) | 25 488 783 | 22.1 | -64.4 |
| 4 | 5 | 8 | FRANKFURT, DE (FRA) | 22 697 490 | 34.8 | -64.0 |
| 5 | 4 | 6 | PARIS, FR (CDG) | 22 616 995 | 18.7 | -67.6 |
| 6 | 7 | 15 | DOHA, QA (DOH) | 17 701 978 | 41.4 | -54.4 |
| 7 | 3 | 2 | LONDON, GB (LHR) | 17 624 931 | -14.7 | -76.8 |
| 8 | 31 | 26 | ANTALYA, TR (AYT) | 17 148 111 | 160.4 | -40.3 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | MADRID, ES (MAD) | 15 337 775 | 38.8 | -65.9 |
| 10 | 28 | 61 | CANCÚN, MX (CUN) | 13 261 951 | 94.5 | -19.7 |
International passengers were enplaned and deplaned.
Air cargo's volumes increased by close to 15% year-over-year, to an estimated record 123 million metric tonnes in 2021, despite the impact of COVID-19.
Air cargo volumes at the top 10 airports, which represent 25% of the global volumes in 2021, gained 12.4% in the year. Demand for online consumer goods and pharmaceutical products continues to increase.
Hong Kong International Airport gained back the top position, followed by Memphis International Airport and then Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
There were over 69 million aircraft movements in the year 2021, representing a gain of more than 12% from the year before. The top 10 airports represent close to 8% of global traffic and experienced a gain of 33.9% year-over-year.
Atlanta International Airport leads, followed by Chicago O'Hare International Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The United States has the top 10 airports for aircraft movements.
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | Airport | 2021 | % vs 2020 | % vs 2019 |
| 1 | 2 | 1 | HONG KONG SAR, HK (HKG) | 5 025 495 | 12.5 | 4.5 |
| 2 | 1 | 2 | MEMPHIS TN, US (MEM) | 4 480 465 | -2.9 | 3.6 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | SHANGHAI, CN (PVG) | 3 982 616 | 8.0 | 9.6 |
| 4 | 4 | 6 | ANCHORAGE AK, US (ANC**) | 3 555 160 | 12.6 | 29.5 |
| 5 | 6 | 5 | INCHEON, KR (ICN) | 3 329 292 | 18.0 | 20.4 |
| 6 | 5 | 4 | LOUISVILLE KY, US (SDF) | 3 052 269 | 4.6 | 9.4 |
| 7 | 7 | 9 | TAIPEI, TW (TPE) | 2 812 065 | 20.0 | 28.9 |
| 8 | 8 | 13 | LOS ANGELES CA, US (LAX) | 2 691 830 | 20.7 | 28.7 |
| 9 | 11 | 10 | TOKYO, JP (NRT) | 2 644 074 | 31.1 | 25.7 |
| 10 | 9 | 8 | DOHA, QA (DOH) | 2 620 095 | 20.5 | 18.2 |
Load and unload freight and mail in metric tonnes.
The freight includes transit freight.
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