- Atlanta world’s busiest, followed by Beijing and Dubai
- Heathrow slips to 6th, Istanbul up to 11th
- Chicago up from 7th to 4th
The 2015 Airports Council International World Airport Traffic Report has named Atlanta as the World’s busiest airport for the 18th successive year.
Based on reports from 1,144 airports worldwide, ACI’s preliminary passenger traffic results for the most-travelled airports in 2015 record Atlanta is up 5.5pc in passenger traffic past the 100m barrier in 2015,
The airport has held the title of ‘world’s busiest’ for so long that earlier this year it announced that it would prefer to be known as the ‘most travelled to’ airport, to rid itself of any negative connotations.
Atlanta has benefitted tremendously from its strategic location as a major connecting hub and port of entry into North America. The airport is within a two-hour flight of 80pc of the United States population.
Atlanta also owes its strides in throughput to its major operator, Delta Air Lines. Coupled with efficiency gains in the deployment of its aircraft fleet, the airline has continued to make inroads into the American domestic market.
While Beijing was poised to close the gap on ATL by 2015, it no longer benefits from the double-digit growth it enjoyed in previous years, and as such remains in second position. The combination of a Chinese slowdown and capacity constraints has meant lower growth levels at the airport.
Beijing grew by 4.4pc in total passenger traffic. At the same time, Shanghai, the second-largest airport for throughput in China, grew by 16.3pc in 2015. With an added runway and increased slot capacity, Shanghai was the fastest growing airport among the world’s top 20.
Moving from the sixth busiest airport in 2014 to the third position in 2015 is Dubai. Total passenger traffic at the airport grew by 10.7pc in 2015. The airport is also the world’s busiest in terms of international passengers ahead of London-Heathrow. Dubai has become the fulcrum that connects long-haul international flights from east and west, north and south. Chicago O’Hare moved up to become the fourth-ranked airport in 2015 from seventh position in 2014, with growth last year of 9.8pc. After years of congestion, the airport is reaping the benefits of runway expansions and other capacity developments.
The world’s largest air cargo hub continues to be Hong Kong (+0.4pc). Memphis (+0.8pc) is in the second spot followed by Shanghai (+2.9pc). Despite apparent pockets of weakness in the air cargo markets, Chicago experienced robust growth of 15.6pc in 2015. With recently expanded air cargo facilities, the airport maintains its status as a major nexus for global trade and a link to the multimodal transfer of goods across the continent.
Doha, a major Middle Eastern airport and one of the fastest growing airports in the world, entered the top 20 given a jump of 46pc in air cargo volumes in 2015.
Atlanta (+1.6pc) has become the world’s busiest airport for aircraft movements following a drop in movements at the second ranked Chicago (-0.8pc) in 2015. Shanghai had the highest growth in movements at 11.5pc in 2015.
Angela Gittens, Director General, ACI World said it is impressive to witness the dynamic character of the aviation industry and its evolution over time,” said. “In certain markets, we see both airlines and airport operators expanding and optimizing their capacity in order to accommodate the growing demand for air transport. Thus, even in the most mature markets such as the United States and parts of Western Europe, several of the major hubs experienced year-over-year growth rates in passenger traffic that were well above the historical growth levels for these regions. On the other hand, we continue to observe double-digit growth rates at major Middle Eastern and Asian hubs serving long haul routes in emerging markets. With the continued rise in per-capita income and liberalization of air transport across these markets, the propensity to travel by air will rise accordingly. However, airport capacity considerations on the supply side within major city markets will remain paramount to the issue of accommodating the surge in demand for air travel.”
- Total passengers: +6.1pc
- Total international passengers: +6.3pc
- Total cargo (includes mail): +2.4pc
- Total international freight: +2.2pc
- Total aircraft movements: +1.8pc
Top 50 airports:
- Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta 101,491,106 5.5pc
- Beijing Capital 89,938,628 4.4pc
- Dubai 78,014,841 10.7pc
- Chicago O’Hare 76,942,493 9.8pc
- Tokyo Haneda 75,316,718 3.4pc
- London Heathrow 74,989,795 2.2pc
- Los Angeles 74,937,004 6.1pc
- Hong Kong 68,283,407 8.2pc
- Paris-Charles de Gaulle 65,766,986 3.1pc
- Dallas/Fort Worth 64,072,468 0.9pc
- Istanbul Atatürk 61,836,781 9.2pc
- Frankfurt 61,032,022 2.5pc
- Shanghai Pudong 60,053,387 16.3pc
- Amsterdam Schiphol 58,284,864 6.0pc
- John F. Kennedy 56,827,154 6.8pc
- Singapore Changi 55,449,000 2.5pc
- Guangzhou Baiyun 55,201,915 0.8pc
- Soekarno-Hatta 54,053,905 5.5pc
- Denver 54,014,502 1.0pc
- Suvarnabhumi 52,808,013 13.8pc
- San Francisco 50,057,887 6.3pc
- Seoul Incheon 49,412,750 8.2pc
- Kuala Lumpur 48,938,424 0.0pc
- Madrid Barajas 46,779,554 12.0pc
- Indira Gandhi 45,981,773 15.7pc
- McCarran 45,356,580 5.8pc
- Charlotte Douglas 44,876,627 1.2pc
- Miami 44,350,247 8.3pc
- Phoenix Sky Harbor 44,003,840 4.5pc
- George Bush Intercontinental 43,023,224 4.3pc
- Seattle-Tacoma 42,340,461 12.9
- Chengdu Shuangliu 42,244,842 12.0pc
- Toronto Pearson 41,036,847 6.4pc
- Munich 40,981,522 3.2pc
- Chhatrapati Shivaji 40,637,377 16.1pc
- Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino 40,422,156 5.0pc
- London Gatwick 40,271,343 5.7pc
- Sydney Kingsford-Smith 39,914,103 2.7pc
- Shenzhen Bao’an 39,721,619 9.5pc
- Barcelona–El Prat 39,674,095 5.7pc
- São Paulo-Guarulhos 39,213,865 1.4pc
- Shanghai Hongqiao 39,090,699 3.0pc
- Orlando 38,727,749 8.4pc
- Taiwan Taoyuan 38,473,333 7.5pc
- Benito Juárez 38,433,288 12.2pc
- Kunming Changshui 37,523,345 16.0pc
- Newark Liberty 37,494,704 5.3pc
- Narita 37,268,307 4.9pc
- Ninoy Aquino 36,583,459 7.3pc
- Minneapolis/St Paul 36,556,281 4.1pc
