The World’s 10 Busiest Airports In 2021

Last year was another strange one when it comes to travel. While Canada still considered unnecessary international travel to be ill advised, as did many other countries; for some they decided to risk it, pay the extra expense, and travel anyway.

Which meant there was a huge increase in flights from 2020 to 2021, but not quite back to pre-pandemic levels. Total global passengers in 2021 is estimated to be close to 4.5 billion, representing an increase of almost 25% from 2020, or a drop of more than 50% from 2019 results.

The busiest airports in the world made for a very different list from years past.

Here are the top 10 busiest airports in 2021, a list dominated by the US, as reported by the Airports Council International (ACI):

1. Atlanta (ATL): 75.7 million passengers
2. Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW): 62.5 million
3. Denver (DEN): 58.8 million
4. Chicago O’Hare (ORD): 54 million
5. Los Angeles (LAX): 48 million
6. Charlotte (CLT): 43.3 million
7. Orlando (MCO): 40.4 million
8. Guangzhou in China (CAN): 40.3 million
9. Chengdu in China (CTU): 40.1 million
10. Las Vegas (LAS): 39.8 million

Compared to the first year of the pandemic in 2020:

1. Guangzhou, China (CAN) 43.7 million
2. Atlanta, US (ATL) 42.9 million
3. Chengdu, China (CTU) 40.7 million
4. Dallas/Fort Worth, US (DFW) 39.3 million
5. Shenzhen, China (SZX) 37.9 million
6. Chongqing, China (CKG) 34.9 million
7. Beijing, China (PEK) 34.5 million
8. Denver, US (DEN) 33.7 million
9. Kunming, China (KMG) 32.9 million
10. Shanghai, China (SHA) 31.1 million

Or pre-pandemic in 2019:

1. Atlanta, US (ATL) 110.5 million
2. Beijing, China (PEK) 100 million
3. Los Angeles, US (LAX) 88 million
4. Dubai, UAE (DXB) 86.3 million
5. Tokyo, Japan (HND) 85.5 million
6. Chicago, US (ORD) 84.6 million
7. London, England (LHR) 80.8 million
8. Shanghai, China (PVG) 76.1 million
9. Paris, France (CDG) 76.1 million
10. Dallas/Fort Worth, US (DFW) 75 million

Source: https://bit.ly/3jxSX0x