The World’s Busiest Airports: Atlanta Once Again Tops the List

Like most other major airports, Atlanta still hasn’t fully bounced back from the pandemic, when air travel slowed sharply after lockdown restrictions were imposed. The number of passengers who passed through Atlanta in 2022 was 15% less than in 2019, according to ACI World. 

Atlanta has been the busiest airport for two straight years and three of the past four; in 2020 it was the second-busiest behind

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport

in southern China. 

The number of global travelers increased to nearly 7 billion in 2022, a 54% increase from the prior year, according to ACI World. But 2022 figures came in about 26% less than 2019.

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport came in second on the busiest airport list with 73.4 million passengers in 2022, according to ACI World. Denver International Airport was third with 69.3 million travelers, and Chicago O’Hare International Airport came in fourth with 68.3 million. The top four didn’t change from 2021. 

The last U.S. airport on the list was Los Angeles International Airport, which came in sixth with 65.9 million passengers. 

Five airports located in major cities outside of the U.S. joined the ranks of the top 10 busiest airports after missing the list last year. Those cities are Dubai, Istanbul, London, New Delhi and Paris. 

“While U.S. airport hubs were able to recover quicker due to their strong domestic market, we are now witnessing global hubs joining upper ranks,”

Luis Felipe de Oliveira,

director general at ACI World, said in a statement.  

The U.S. airline industry is coming off a bumpy year as it rebounds from the pandemic. Travelers made more than 60,000 complaints from January 2022 to November after waves of flight cancellations and delays disrupted travel, according to U.S. PIRG Education Fund, a public-interest research group which examined U.S. Department of Transportation data. That was nearly quadruple the number of complaints filed in 2019. 

About 181,000 flights were canceled in 2022 by the largest U.S. airlines, according to U.S. PIRG Education Fund. Only 2001, following the 9/11 attacks, and 2020, the start of the pandemic, had more flight cancellations over the past two decades, according to the group. 

U.S. airline executives said they expect air travel demand will be strong in 2023 but business travel will likely lag behind. 

International travel is expected to show more gains in 2023 after China, the second-largest aviation market after the U.S., relaxed Covid-19 travel restrictions, Mr. de Oliveira said.

Of the five U.S. airports on the top-10 list, only Denver has returned to prepandemic levels for travelers. Los Angeles fared the worst, with 2022 passenger volume falling behind 2019 by 25%.

Write to Joseph De Avila at [email protected]

Like most other major airports, Atlanta still hasn’t fully bounced back from the pandemic, when air travel slowed sharply after lockdown restrictions were imposed. The number of passengers who passed through Atlanta in 2022 was 15% less than in 2019, according to ACI World. 

Atlanta has been the busiest airport for two straight years and three of the past four; in 2020 it was the second-busiest behind

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport

in southern China. 

The number of global travelers increased to nearly 7 billion in 2022, a 54% increase from the prior year, according to ACI World. But 2022 figures came in about 26% less than 2019.

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport came in second on the busiest airport list with 73.4 million passengers in 2022, according to ACI World. Denver International Airport was third with 69.3 million travelers, and Chicago O’Hare International Airport came in fourth with 68.3 million. The top four didn’t change from 2021. 

The last U.S. airport on the list was Los Angeles International Airport, which came in sixth with 65.9 million passengers. 

Five airports located in major cities outside of the U.S. joined the ranks of the top 10 busiest airports after missing the list last year. Those cities are Dubai, Istanbul, London, New Delhi and Paris. 

“While U.S. airport hubs were able to recover quicker due to their strong domestic market, we are now witnessing global hubs joining upper ranks,”

Luis Felipe de Oliveira,

director general at ACI World, said in a statement.  

The U.S. airline industry is coming off a bumpy year as it rebounds from the pandemic. Travelers made more than 60,000 complaints from January 2022 to November after waves of flight cancellations and delays disrupted travel, according to U.S. PIRG Education Fund, a public-interest research group which examined U.S. Department of Transportation data. That was nearly quadruple the number of complaints filed in 2019. 

About 181,000 flights were canceled in 2022 by the largest U.S. airlines, according to U.S. PIRG Education Fund. Only 2001, following the 9/11 attacks, and 2020, the start of the pandemic, had more flight cancellations over the past two decades, according to the group. 

U.S. airline executives said they expect air travel demand will be strong in 2023 but business travel will likely lag behind. 

International travel is expected to show more gains in 2023 after China, the second-largest aviation market after the U.S., relaxed Covid-19 travel restrictions, Mr. de Oliveira said.

Of the five U.S. airports on the top-10 list, only Denver has returned to prepandemic levels for travelers. Los Angeles fared the worst, with 2022 passenger volume falling behind 2019 by 25%.

Write to Joseph De Avila at [email protected]