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Eight out of the 10 busiest airports in the world in 2021 were in the U.S., including Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which ranked second, according to a report by the Airports Council International.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was the busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic with 76 million passengers in 2021. DFW Airport, which was fourth in the rankings last year and 10th in 2019, had 62 million.
An estimated 4.5 billion passengers traveled worldwide in 2021, according to the Airports Council, a 25% increase from 2020, yet a 50% decrease from 2019. Passenger traffic at the top 10 busiest airports, representing collectively almost 10% of global traffic (463 million passengers), witnessed a gain of 51.8% from 2020, or a drop of 29.1% their 2019 results.
“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,” ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira said in a statement. “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.
“ACI World continues to advocate to governments to follow the data and ease travel restrictions to safely restore the movement of people, goods, and services. This will provide travellers with more travel options and boost the overall recovery through aviation’s unique role in boosting trade, tourism, investment and creating jobs.”
Airports Council International