Story highlights
Airline passenger traffic continued to grow last year
The top passenger airport isn't the top cargo airport
Paris was the only airport to make it onto all three top 10 airport lists
Atlanta’s enormous airport is still the busiest passenger airport in the world.
More than 95 million passengers passed through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 2012, an increase of 3.4% over the previous year, according to Airports Council International’s 2012 World Annual Traffic Report, released Monday.
Beijing Capital International Airport came in second place, with nearly 82 million passengers last year, an increase of 4.1% over 2011. London’s Heathrow Airport came in third place with 70 million passengers, an increase of 0.9%, according to Airports Council International, the worldwide association of airports.
Rounding out the top 10 busiest passenger airports were Tokyo International Airport (Haneda), Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Paris, Dallas/Fort Worth, Jakarta and Dubai.
#ATL24: Behind the scenes at the world’s busiest airport
Passenger traffic continued to grow around the world, with the world’s airports serving more than 5.7 billion passengers last year, growing by 4.4 percent from the previous year, according to the report.
Atlanta’s airport also topped the rankings in airplane movements (takeoffs and landings), with 930,000 movements last year. Chicago O’Hare International Airport came in second place with 878,000 movements and Los Angeles International Airport ranked third with 699,000 movements. Rounding out that list were Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Beijing, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Houston and Paris.
Hong Kong’s airport is still the busiest cargo airport in the world, transporting 4.1 million metric tons of cargo last year. Memphis, Tennessee, home to FedEx, came in second place with 4.0 million metric tons and Shanghai was third with 2.9 million metric tons. (One metric ton equals 2,205 pounds.) Rounding out the top 10 were cargo airports in: Anchorage, Alaska; Incheon, South Korea; Dubai; Louisville, Kentucky; Paris; Frankfurt, Germany; and Tokyo (Narita).
This report updates a preliminary report released in March.