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Aircraft (Global Market)

Main article: Aircraft (global market)

2023: Passenger traffic at world airports grew by 27% over the year to reach 8.5 billion people

At the end of 2023, the passenger traffic of world airports reached 8.5 billion people. This is 27% more compared to 2022, when the figure was estimated at 6.7 billion passengers. Such data are given in a study by the Airports Council International (ACI), the results of which TAdviser got acquainted with in mid-December 2024.

The report said that global passenger traffic at airports in 2023 recovered to 93.8% of the level observed before the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the resumption of international transportation approached the indicators of domestic recovery, which emphasizes their significant role in the revival and expansion of the industry. While the domestic segment grew by 20.2% and recovered by 96.8% from the 2019 level, the international sector showed a growth rate of 36.5%, but recovered to 90.4% from the pre-pandemic level.

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Фото: Freepik

The ten largest airports, which account for about 10% of world traffic (806 million passengers), showed an increase of 19.8% compared to 2022 or 0.7% compared to the results of 2019, when they served 801 million passengers. Of the top ten air harbors in terms of total passenger traffic, five are in the United States.

The busiest airport in the world in 2023 was American Hartsfield-Jackson, Atlas which served 104.7 million passengers. This is 11.7% more than the previous year. In second place is the international airport Dubai with 87 million passengers and an increase of 31.7% on an annualized basis. Closes the top three American airport "/Dallas Fort Worth "- 81.8 million passengers and an increase of 11.4% compared to 2022. The largest jump in the top ten ranking was recorded at Tokyo Haneda Airport, which rose from 16th place in 2022 to fifth in 2023.^[1]

2022: Top 10 busiest airports in the world named

In April 2023, Airports Council International (ACI) published a ranking of the 10 busiest airports in the world for 2022. During this period, global passenger traffic reached almost 7 billion people, which is 53.5% more than in 2021.

The 10 largest airports in terms of total passenger traffic, representing 10% of global traffic, showed an increase in the number of visitors by 51.7% compared to 2021. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL, 93.7 million passengers for 2022, + 23.8%) topped the ranking of busiest airports. Next are Dallas Fort Worth (DFW, 73.4 million passengers, + 17.5%), Denver Airport (DEN, 69.3 million passengers, + 17.8%) and Chicago O'Hare Airport (ORD, 68.3 million passengers, + 26.5%).

The Busiest Airports in the World

Of the 10 largest airports in the world, 5 are in the United States. All of them have a significant share of domestic passengers from 75% to 95% of domestic traffic.

The airports that again took the top lines of the rating also included Dubai Airport, which took 5th place (DXB, 66.1 million passengers, + 127%), Istanbul Airport, which took 7th place (IST, 64.3 million passengers, + 73.8%), as well as London Heathrow Airport, Delhi Airport and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, which took 8th, 9th and 10th places, respectively.

The biggest jump in the top 10 was recorded for London Heathrow (LHR). The airport improved its rating from 54th as borders reopened in March 2022 after two years of closure.

Air cargo volumes at the 10 largest airports, representing about 27% (30.8 million metric tons) of global volumes in 2022, decreased by 9.9% in 2022 compared to 2021 (but retained an increase of 4.1% compared to 2019 results). The decline could be due to ongoing geopolitical tensions due to the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine at the end of February 2022, as well as the disruption of global trade and the rupture of supply chains.

Hong Kong Airport (HKG, 4.2 million metric tons, -16.4%) remained in first place, followed by Memphis Airport (MEM, 4 million metric tons, -9.8%) and Anchorage Airport (ANC, 3.5 million metric tons, -4.3%). Shanghai Pudong Airport (PVG, 3.1 million metric tons, -21.7%) lost its place to ANC and ended up in 4th position.^[2]

2021:10 busiest airports in Europe

Europe's 10 busiest airports in 2021:

1. Airport "Istanbul" - 36.9 million passengers

2. Moscow Sheremetyevo - 30.9 million

3. Charles de Gaulle Paris - 26.2 million

4. Amsterdam "Schiphol" - 25.5 million

5. Moscow Domodedovo - 25.1 million

2020

Moscow entered the top 5 air hubs in the world - Forbes

At the end of 2020 Moscow , it entered the top 5 air hubs in the world. We are talking about the compiled Forbes rating of cities for aviation passenger traffic.

At the end of 2020, Moscow lost only three cities. In first place in the ranking was the Shanghai air hub, the passenger traffic of which reached 61.7 million people. It is followed by Bangkok and Beijing - 50 million and 50.5 million people, respectively. The indicator of the Russian capital amounted to 49.4 million people.

In fifth place is the London air hub (46.3 million passengers), which includes six airports. Prior to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Heathrow International Airport (22.1 million passengers) was the second busiest in the world and the first in Europe.

As noted in the publication of the publication, during the first wave of coronavirus, the sky was closed in almost all countries, and this hit international airports the hardest. However, since the summer, in the absence of foreign resort programs, Russians have switched to domestic tourism. As a result, according to the Federal Air Transport Agency, 19.6 million passengers flew through Sheremetyevo (49.4 million in 2019), 16.4 million (28.3 million) through Domodedovo, 12.6 million (24 million) through Vnukovo, that is, only 48.6 million people against 101.7 million a year earlier.

Statistics of the Zhukovsky airport near Moscow, focused mainly on international transportation, are not in the data of the Federal Air Transport Agency. In 2019, Zhukovsky served 1.4 million passengers, and, given the general collapse of international traffic, its figures will not greatly change the results of the Moscow air hub, experts say.

Oleg Panteleev, executive director of the AviaPort agency, assessing the changes in airport congestion, noted that where there is a strong domestic air transportation market, the drop in passenger traffic is lower. In addition, where the country's authorities did not impose strict restrictions on tourists, for example, in Istanbul, there is a fall lower, he explained.^[3]

Guangzhou's Baiyun International Airport is the busiest leader

In 2020, Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou, the capital of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, took a leading position among all airports in the world in terms of passenger traffic and the number of flights. In 2019, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States was considered the busiest airport in the world.

Baiyun Airport served 43.768 million passengers in 2020, which is 40.4% less than in 2019. However, other airports have declined even more, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport served 61.2% less passengers in 2020 - 42.918 million people.

Shuangliu International Airport, Beijing Shoudou Airport, and Shanghai Pudong served over 30 million passengers in 2020, falling into the TOP-10 of the busiest airports. The American international airport O'hare (Chicago) and the Japanese airport Haneda (Tokyo) are lagging behind them - they served about 28.6 million people in 2020.

Guangzhou's Baiyun International Airport Leads in Congestion in 2020

Los Angeles International Airport, which was the third busiest in the world in 2019, estimates that its passenger traffic for 2020 was about 29 million, down 67% from a year earlier.

Dubai International Airport, the fourth largest in 2019, experienced its worst year, with 17.889 million passengers travelling through the Gulf air hub, down almost 80% from 2019.

London Heathrow Airport and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2020 served just over 22 million people each. That means European leaders in terms of congestion could be squeezed by Istanbul's new airport, which opened in April 2019. In 2020, it served 23.4 million passengers.

The increase in congestion at Baiyun Airport is caused by a revival in demand for air tickets home. In addition, on its official website in Weibo, the airport explained the high efficiency of "China's ability to successfully cope with the pandemic," which made it possible to quickly restore the activities of enterprises.^[4]

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