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Airport

The biggest airports worldwide by passengers

The largest airport in this ranking is the Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States. With 707,661 starts and landings in 2021, it belongs without doubt on the list of the biggest airports worldwide. 37 airlines are starting here and fly to numerous travel destinations. About 76 million passengers and 734,771 tons of cargo are moved annually.

The data given for passengers, movements and cargo are based on the year 2021.
Order by:

PassengersCargoMovementsAirlinesLongest runway


1.Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta Airport
United States (ATL)
Passengers:
75.70 M
Cargo volume:
734,771 t
Movements:
707,661
Airlines:
37
Longest runway:
11,890 ft
2.Hong Kong Airport
Hong Kong (HKG)
Passengers:
71.54 M
Cargo volume:
5,025,495 t
Movements:
416,900
Airlines:
83
Longest runway:
12,467 ft
3.Incheon Airport
Seoul, South Korea (ICN)
Passengers:
71.17 M
Cargo volume:
3,329,292 t
Movements:
211,404
Airlines:
66
Longest runway:
13,000 ft
4.Dallas Fort Worth Airport
Dallas-Fort Worth, United States (DFW)
Passengers:
62.47 M
Cargo volume:
910,623 t
Movements:
651,895
Airlines:
33
Longest runway:
13,401 ft
5.Denver Airport
United States (DEN)
Passengers:
58.83 M
Cargo volume:
305,344 t
Movements:
580,866
Airlines:
24
Longest runway:
16,000 ft
6.Chicago O'Hare Airport
United States (ORD)
Passengers:
54.02 M
Cargo volume:
2,536,576 t
Movements:
684,201
Airlines:
46
Longest runway:
13,000 ft
7.Taiwan Taoyuan Airport
Taipei, Taiwan (TPE)
Passengers:
48.69 M
Cargo volume:
2,812,065 t
Movements:
194,239
Airlines:
50
Longest runway:
12,008 ft
8.Los Angeles Airport
United States (LAX)
Passengers:
48.01 M
Cargo volume:
2,691,830 t
Movements:
506,769
Airlines:
62
Longest runway:
12,091 ft
9.Narita Airport
Tokyo, Japan (NRT)
Passengers:
44.34 M
Cargo volume:
2,644,074 t
Movements:
190,126
Airlines:
66
Longest runway:
13,123 ft
10.Charlotte Douglas Airport
United States (CLT)
Passengers:
43.30 M
Cargo volume:
152,920 t
Movements:
519,895
Airlines:
18
Longest runway:
10,000 ft
11.Orlando Airport
United States (MCO)
Passengers:
40.35 M
Cargo volume:
222,394 t
Movements:
310,117
Airlines:
35
Longest runway:
12,005 ft
12.Guangzhou Baiyun Airport
China (CAN)
Passengers:
40.25 M
Cargo volume:
1,922,132 t
Movements:
362
Airlines:
56
Longest runway:
12,467 ft
13.Chengdu Shuangliu Airport
China (CTU)
Passengers:
40.12 M
Cargo volume:
477,700 t
Movements:
301
Airlines:
39
Longest runway:
11,811 ft
14.McCarran Airport
Las Vegas, United States (LAS)
Passengers:
39.75 M
Cargo volume:
109,006 t
Movements:
486,540
Airlines:
34
Longest runway:
14,510 ft
15.Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport
United States (PHX)
Passengers:
38.85 M
Cargo volume:
400,888 t
Movements:
408,285
Airlines:
24
Longest runway:
11,489 ft
16.Miami Airport
United States (MIA)
Passengers:
37.30 M
Cargo volume:
2,520,859 t
Movements:
387,973
Airlines:
43
Longest runway:
13,000 ft
17.Hamad Airport
Doha, Qatar (DOH)
Passengers:
37.28 M
Cargo volume:
2,620,095 t
Airlines:
41
Longest runway:
15,912 ft
18.Istanbul New Airport
Turkey (ISL)
Passengers:
37.18 M
Longest runway:
13,451 ft
19.Indira Gandhi Airport
New Delhi, India (DEL)
Passengers:
37.14 M
Cargo volume:
857,419 t
Movements:
466,452
Airlines:
59
Longest runway:
14,534 ft
20.Atatürk Airport
Istanbul, Turkey (IST)
Passengers:
36.99 M
Cargo volume:
466,553 t
Movements:
460,785
Airlines:
68
Longest runway:
9,843 ft
21.Shenzhen Bao'an Airport
China (SZX)
Passengers:
36.36 M
Cargo volume:
1,125,000 t
Movements:
318
Airlines:
31
Longest runway:
12,467 ft
22.Seattle Tacoma Airport
United States (SEA)
Passengers:
36.15 M
Cargo volume:
498,741 t
Movements:
374,510
Airlines:
33
Longest runway:
11,900 ft
23.Licenciado Benito Juarez Airport
Mexico City, Mexico (MEX)
Passengers:
36.06 M
Cargo volume:
409,205 t
Movements:
459,987
Airlines:
30
Longest runway:
12,966 ft
24.Chongqing Jiangbei Airport
China (CKG)
Passengers:
35.77 M
Cargo volume:
280,150 t
Movements:
281
Airlines:
39
Longest runway:
10,499 ft
25.Shanghai Hongqiao Airport
China (SHA)
Passengers:
33.21 M
Cargo volume:
480,438 t
Movements:
231
Airlines:
26
Longest runway:
11,154 ft
26.Beijing Capital Airport
China (PEK)
Passengers:
32.64 M
Cargo volume:
1,957,779 t
Movements:
298
Airlines:
81
Longest runway:
12,468 ft
27.Kunming Changshui Airport
China (KMG)
Passengers:
32.22 M
Cargo volume:
293,628 t
Movements:
279
Airlines:
36
Longest runway:
14,764 ft
28.Shanghai Pudong Airport
China (PVG)
Passengers:
32.21 M
Cargo volume:
3,982,616 t
Movements:
350
Airlines:
65
Longest runway:
13,123 ft
29.George Bush Intercontinental Houston Airport
United States (IAH)
Passengers:
31.87 M
Cargo volume:
511,814 t
Movements:
378,562
Airlines:
32
Longest runway:
12,001 ft
30.John F Kennedy Airport
New York, United States (JFK)
Passengers:
30.79 M
Cargo volume:
1,461,020 t
Movements:
289,565
Airlines:
74
Longest runway:
14,572 ft


Airports Council International

The Airports Council International (ACI) is an umbrella organization consisting of 641 members that deal with all aspects of airport management. Of these 641 members, a total of 1,953 airports are operated in 176 countries (as of January 2018). This also includes all major airports worldwide. In monthly and annual reports, the ACI publishes the traffic figures for passengers and freight traffic of its members with a 12-month delay. The official figures for 2022 will therefore only be available at the beginning of 2024 and will also be limited to the top 30 places.

In total, there are 61 airports with a passenger volume of over 25 million per year, which the ACI classifies as major airports. Of these, around one third are located in North America and one quarter in Europe. The rest are spread across Asia, Australia and South America. None of the major airports are located in Africa.

IATA and ICAO codes

Airport The best-known airport abbreviations are the three-digit letter combinations of the IATA. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is an association of around 280 airlines worldwide. The airports themselves are not members in the strict sense, but there are several hundred strategic partnerships between IATA and airports, the aviation industry and public authorities, as well as travel agencies and suppliers.

The aim of IATA is the international development of safe and economical air traffic. This includes, above all, the creation of standards such as ticket or booking systems. For example, it handles the booking and invoicing of over 400 million airline tickets every year.

The IATA codes are issued for airports (e.g., "SFO" for San Francisco), airlines (e.g., "LH" for Lufthansa) and aircraft types (e.g., "388" for an Airbus A380-800). The letters of an airport code usually have a connection with the name of the city. Only at very large airports does IATA assign a code that is not based on the city or region, but on the name of the airport, for example LHR (London Heathrow) or CDG (Charles de Gaulle).

A major drawback of the IATA codes is the limited selection of three-digit codes, which means that codes are assigned again after some time. Since IATA only issues an official list for a four-digit fee, several internet services are involved in collecting these codes. Unfortunately, this always leads to the listing of previously used codes for wrong airports and thus to apparent duplicates.

A further organization for international air traffic is the "International Civil Aviation Organization" (ICAO), which is a special organization of the United Nations (UN) and also assigns its own codes for airports, airlines and aircraft types. Unlike IATA codes, however, normal passengers rarely come into contact with ICAO codes. They are mostly used by pilots and air traffic control. They are recognizable by their four letters, which gives them an advantage over the IATA codes in that there are considerably more possible combinations and the same code is not assigned multiple times. Their more systematic structure also makes it possible to identify where an airport is located. The first two letters stand for the region and the country.

CSV download

An (unfortunately incomplete) list of the IATA and ICAO codes used on WorldData.info is available here free of charge as a CSV file for download.