Top 10 Busiest Airports in the World

This article looks at a Top 10 Busiest Airports in the World. Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States holds the top spot as the busiest airport in the world, with over 75 million passengers passing through its gates annually. Atlanta’s central location in the US makes it a major hub for domestic flights and a gateway to South America, Europe, and Africa.

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (IATA: ATL, ICAO: KATL, FAALID: ATL), also known as Atlanta Hartsfield–Jackson International Airport, Hartsfield–Jackson International Airport, Atlanta Airport, Hartsfield–Jackson, and formerly as the Atlanta Municipal Airport, is the primary international airport serving Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The airport is located 10 mi (16 km) south of the Downtown Atlanta district. It is named after former Atlanta mayors William B. Hartsfield and Maynard Jackson. ATL covers 4,700 acres (1,900 ha) of land and has five parallel runways. Since 1998, Hartsfield-Jackson has been the world’s busiest airport by passenger traffic. In 2022, the airport had over 93.6 million passengers, the most of any airport in the world.

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (IATA: DFW, ICAO: KDFW, FAA LID: DFW), also known as DFW Airport or simply DFW, is the primary international airport serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the North Texas Region in the U.S. state of Texas.

It is the largest hub for American Airlines, which is headquartered near the airport, and is the third-busiest airport in the world by aircraft movements and the second-busiest airport by passenger traffic in 2021, according to the Airports Council International. It is the ninth-busiest international gateway in the United States and the second-busiest international gateway in Texas (behind Houston-IAH). American Airlines at DFW is the second-largest single airline hub in the world and the United States, behind Delta Air Lines‘s hub in Atlanta

Denver International Airport (DEN)

Denver International Airport (IATA: DEN, ICAO: KDEN, FAALID: DEN), locally known as DIA, is an international airport in the Western United States, primarily serving metropolitan Denver, Colorado, as well as the greater Front Range Urban Corridor. At 33,531 acres (52.4 sq mi; 135.7 km²), it is the largest airport in the Western Hemisphere by land area and the second largest on Earth, behind King Fahd International Airport. Runway 16R/34L, with a length of 16,000 feet (3.03 mi; 4.88 km), is the longest public use runway in North America and the seventh longest on Earth. The airport is 25 miles (40 km) driving distance from Downtown Denver, 19 miles (31 km) farther than the former Stapleton International Airport, the facility DEN replaced: the airport land was originally part of Adams County until the construction of the airport in 1995, and is actually located in between Commerce City and Aurora with the Southwest side connecting strip of neighborhoods (on the route of Peña Blvd) being the only connection with the rest of the city of Denver: many airport-related services, such as hotels, are located in Aurora.

O’Hare International Airport (ORD)

Chicago O’Hare International Airport (IATA: ORD, ICAO: KORD, FAALID: ORD), sometimes referred to as Chicago O’Hare, or simply O’Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city’s Northwest Side, approximately 17 miles (27 km) northwest of the Loop business district. Operated by the Chicago Department of Aviation and covering 7,627 acres (3,087 ha), O’Hare has non-stop flights to 214 destinations in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, and the North Atlantic region as of November 2022. As of 2023, O’Hare is considered the world’s most connected airport.

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

Los Angeles International Airport (IATA: LAX, ICAO: KLAX, FAA LID: LAX), commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the Westchester neighborhood of Los Angeles, 18 miles (30 km) southwest of Downtown Los Angeles, with the commercial and residential areas of Westchester to the north, the city of El Segundo to the south and the city of Inglewood to the east. LAX is the closest airport to the Westside and the South Bay.

Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)

Charlotte Douglas International Airport (IATA: CLT, ICAO: KCLT, FAALID: CLT), typically referred to as Charlotte Douglas, Douglas Airport, or simply CLT, is an international airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, located roughly six miles west of the city’s central business district. Charlotte Douglas is the primary airport for commercial and military use in the Charlotte metropolitan area. Operated by the city of Charlotte’s aviation department, the airport covers 5,558 acres (2,249 ha) of land.

Orlando International Airport (MCO)

Orlando International Airport (IATA: MCO, ICAO: KMCO, FAALID: MCO) is a primary international airport located 6 miles (9.7 km) southeast of Downtown Orlando, Florida. In 2021, it had 19,618,838 enplanements, making it the busiest airport in the state and seventh busiest airport in the United States. The airport code MCO stands for the airport’s former name, McCoy Air Force Base, a Strategic Air Command (SAC) installation, that was closed in 1975 as part of a general military drawdown following the end of the Vietnam War.

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN)

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (IATA: CAN, ICAO: ZGGG) is the international airport serving Guangzhou, the capital of Southern China’s Guangdong province.

The two airport codes were inherited from the former Baiyun Airport, and the IATA code is derived from Guangzhou’s historical romanization Canton. Baiyun Airport serves as a hub for China Southern Airlines, FedEx Express, 9 Air, Hainan Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines. In 2020, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aviation, it was the world’s busiest airport by passenger traffic, handling 43.8 million passengers.

Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)

Chengdu Tianfu International Airport (IATA: TFU, ICAO: ZUTF) is a major air hub of Western China and one of the two international airports serving Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan province, the other one being Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU).

The airport is located at Lujia Town, Jianyang, Chengdu, 51 kilometers (32 mi) southeast of Downtown Chengdu. It is named after the Tianfu New Area, a development zone for Chengdu in which the airport is. Construction began in May 2016 and the airport opened on 27 June 2021.

Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)

Harry Reid International Airport (IATA: LAS, ICAO: KLAS, FAA LID: LAS) is an international airport in Paradise, Nevada, and is the main airport for the Las Vegas Valley, a metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Nevada, about 5 miles (8 km) south of Downtown Las Vegas. The airport is owned by the Clark County Commission and operated by the Clark County Department of Aviation. LAS covers 2,800 acres (1,100 hectares; 4.4 square miles; 11 square kilometers) of land.

The airport was built in 1942, and opened to airline flights in 1948. It has expanded and employed various innovative technologies, such as common-use facilities. The airport has four runways and two passenger terminals. East of the passenger terminals is the Marnell Air Cargo Center; on the airport’s west side are fixed-base operators and helicopter companies. The airport services as a base for Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and Spirit Airlines.