The busiest airports in the world in 2016
While South Africa’s OR Tambo International Airport is the busiest airport on the African continent, it comes nowhere close to the traffic seen at the world’s biggest flight hubs.
Airports Council International (ACI) has released its global air traffic results for 2015/16, based on reports from 1,144 airports across the world.
The group noted that total air passenger traffic increased by 6.1% in 2015, with a 6.3% upswing in international passengers.
Topping the list for the busiest airport on earth is the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia in the USA, which saw over 101 million passengers pass through its doors in 2015 – a new record.
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport
This is followed by China’s Beijing Capital International Airport with 90 million passengers, and Dubai International Airport, with 78 million passengers.
Dubai International climbed three spots, taking over from London’s Heathrow Airport, which slipped to 6th position with ‘only’ 75 million passengers. Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport was ranked fourth, and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport was fifth.
Airports Company South Africa is yet to release the final 2015 tally for South Africa’s airports, but OR Tambo is guaranteed to come out on top, pushing past its 19.16 million passenger count from 2014 (it’s at 18.6 million passengers at February 2016, with over a million more expected for March).
OR Tambo is the busiest airport in Africa, ranking above Egypt’s Cairo International Airport and Cape Town International Airport.
These are the busiest airports in the world:
| # | Airport | Total passenger traffic | YoY change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport | 101 491 106 | 5.5% |
| 2 | Beijing Capital International Airport | 89 938 628 | 4.4% |
| 3 | Dubai International Airport | 78 010 265 | 10.7% |
| 4 | Chicago O’Hare International Airport | 76 949 504 | 9.8% |
| 5 | Tokyo Haneda Airport | 75 316 718 | 3.4% |
| 6 | London Heathrow Airport | 74 989 795 | 2.2% |
| 7 | Los Angeles International Airport | 74 937 004 | 6.1% |
| 8 | Hong Kong International Airport | 68 283 407 | 8.2% |
| 9 | Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport | 65 766 986 | 3.1% |
| 10 | Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport | 64 072 468 | 0.9% |
| 11 | Istanbul Atatürk Airport | 61 836 781 | 9.2% |
| 12 | Frankfurt Airport | 61 032 022 | 2.5% |
| 13 | Shanghai Pudong International Airport | 60 053 387 | 16.3% |
| 14 | Amsterdam Airport Schiphol | 58 284 864 | 6.0% |
| 15 | New York John F. Kennedy International Airport | 56 827 154 | 6.8% |
| 16 | Singapore Changi Airport | 55 449 000 | 2.5% |
| 17 | Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport | 55 201 915 | 0.8% |
| 18 | Soekarno-Hatta International Airport | 54 053 905 | -5.5% |
| 19 | Denver International Airport | 54 014 502 | 1.0% |
| 20 | Suvarnabhumi Airport | 52 902 110 | 14.0% |
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