Airports Council International, the trade association of the world’s airports, has published the list of top 10 busiest international airports, where Dubai International Airport (DBX) takes up the first place. DBX is followed by Istanbul, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris as the top five busiest hubs by international traffic.
The rankings are based on the preliminary compilation of 2021 global data from the airports around the world.
Dubai International Airport welcomed almost 30 million passengers of 2021, which is a 12.7% jump from a year earlier. Despite the fact that the airport is still down by two-thirds on 2019, the ACI’s international passenger traffic figures are reassuring, which is paving the way for a slow recovery of travel section in the region.
Dubai’s border reopening to foreign tourists in July 2020 has largely contributed to this matter.
As for the overall passenger traffic rankings, international plus domestic, the position of the top busiest airport went to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport followed by Dallas, Denver, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Remarkably, in total eight out of top 10 airports for passenger traffic are in the U.S. with the last two located in China.
According to ACI’s press release, the total number of global passengers in 2021 is close to 4.5 billion, showing an increase of 25% from 2020.
Eight of the top 10 airports for passenger traffic are in the United States with the two remaining in China. All top 10 airports have a significant share of domestic traffic, the traffic segment that has been leading global recovery.
ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira thinks the 2021 data shows signs of a recovery, but it still might meet some obstacles on its way to the full rehabilitation.
“The ACI World passenger traffic rankings tell the story of an encouraging trend of recovery, with most of the recurrent busiest airports pre-COVID-19 back at the top. Although we are cautious that recovery could face multiple headwinds, the momentum created by reopening plans by countries could lead to an uptick in travel in the second half of 2022”.
