Forget Guangzhou, China. Georgia Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States is once again the busiest airport in the world.
The US airport was overtaken from its No. 1 position to No. 2 in passenger volume in 2020 by China’s Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, breaking the airport’s 22-year streak at No.
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But in the 2021 ranking released this week by trade association Airports Council International, Atlanta’s airport is back at the top, a sign of recovery from the 2020 slump in air traffic as the pandemic took hold.
In 2021, the place received 75.7 million passengers. That number is up 76% from 2020, but still nearly 32% below 2019’s pre-pandemic numbers.
Guangzhou airport dropped to eighth position in 2021 with 40.3 million passengers. Another airport in China, Chengdu’s Shuangliu International, is ninth on the 2021 list, down from third in 2020.
US airports dominated passenger traffic rankings in 2021, with eight of the top 10 in the US. Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas International was the second-busiest in 2021, with about 62.5 million passengers, and Denver, Colorado, international airport ranked third with 58.8 million passengers. Chicago’s O’Hare and Los Angeles International rounded out the top five.
The list shows “an encouraging trend towards recovery,” Luis Felipe de Oliveira, director general of ACI World, said in a statement. “While we are cautious that the recovery could face multiple headwinds, the momentum created by countries’ reopening plans could lead to an increase in travel in the second half of 2022,” Oliveira said.
In 2021, there were an estimated 4.5 billion passengers worldwide, according to the ACI. That number represents an increase of nearly 25% from 2020, but a drop of more than 50% from 2019.
Given the much faster recovery of domestic travel compared to international travel, airports that were way down on the list of the world’s busiest airports before the pandemic jumped into the top 10.
Airports in Charlotte, North Carolina (No. 6); Orlando, Florida (No. 7); and Las Vegas (No. 10) are new to this year’s top 10. Vacation magnets Orlando and Las Vegas were 31st and 30th in passenger traffic before the pandemic in 2019.
The United States’ strong showing in the top 10 is a reversal from 2020, when China’s airports occupied seven of the top 10 slots.
China’s dominance in 2020 was due to the early recovery of domestic travel in China. The country has yet to reopen to international visitors.
“If we look at 2020, China was one of the first to emerge from the initial waves of the pandemic and, in fact, almost achieved a full recovery by the end of 2020,” said Patrick Lucas, vice president of economics at ACI World.
But in 2021, domestic traffic in China dropped significantly with renewed lockdowns, while the United States had a big jump.
The United States has the largest domestic travel market in the world, followed by China. Airports that routinely landed in the top 10 of the world’s busiest airports list – such as Dubai International, London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle – have been absent during the pandemic.
“Those markets that had very high proportions of international traffic were hurt as a result of all these restrictions and quarantine requirements,” Lucas said.
The significant role of international traffic is also part of the reason Beijing’s capital and Shanghai’s Pudong International airports have dropped from the top 10. Beijing’s capital – once routinely No. 2 in passenger traffic – is also seeing its traffic divided by the city’s new Daxing International Airport.
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