by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 6:00 PM ET, Tue July 8, 2025
In news that will not be a surprise to airline industry watchers and insiders, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport has once again been crowned the world’s busiest airport.
The Atlanta airport, which has sat atop global traffic rankings for well more than two decades, processed more than 108 million passengers in 2024, according a ranking released today by Airports Council International World.
As busy as ATL is, the airport still remains 2 percent below its pre-pandemic passenger levels of 2019.
Dubai International Airport is the second busiest airport globally according to the new ranking. The Middle East hub processed more than 92 million passengers last year.
Rounding out the top five airports worldwide are Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), which recorded more than 87 million passengers in 2024, Tokyo, Japan (HND) at 85,900,617 passengers, and London, UK (LHR), with a passenger volume of 83,884,572.
Globally, passenger traffic reached a new peak in 2024 of 9.4 billion travelers. That’s an increase of 8.4 percent over 2023 and 2.7 percent above 2019’s pre-pandemic levels. The top 20 airports globally processed a combimed 1.54 billion passengers and captured 16 percent of the total global traffic.
China’s Shanghai Pudong (PVG) notably climbed the most in the rankings for 2024, up 11 positions to take the number 10 slot globally. Meanwhile, China's Guangzhou Baiyun (CAN) airport held on to its 12th place ranking for another year after rising from 57th place between 2022 and 2023.
A total of six U.S. airports made it into the top 20 for 2024. In addition to Atlanta and DFW, the following U.S. airports were among the world’s busiest last year: Denver, Colorado (DEN), Chicago, Illinois (ORD), Los Angeles, California (LAX) and New York, New York (JFK).
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