CNN
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Global travelers are on the move again in a big way, boosting the ranking of a handful of international aviation hubs on the list of the world’s busiest airports.
No change at the top of the list. The No. 1 airport by passengers in 2023, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International, has held that position every year — except for the pandemic-wracked 2020 — for more than two decades.
But for the first time, Dubai is ranked second, according to Airports Council International’s preliminary 2023 rankings released on Monday.
“Dubai served around 87 million passengers in 2023. This is an annual increase of 31%, which is 1% more than in 2019. And they connected 262 destinations around 104 countries with 102 international carriers,” said Luis Felipe de Oliveira, General director of ACI World.
The airport’s jump from number 5 in 2022 is representative of a large area of growth in aviation, with industry expansion in the emerging and developing economies of the Middle East and Asia Pacific region expected to more than double the rate in compared to advanced economies in the coming decades, de Oliveira said.
But for now, Atlanta has nothing to worry about. With 104.7 million passengers in 2023, Dubai is not yet overwhelmed.
Kamran Jabreili/AP
Dubai had its highest performance in the list of busiest airports in 2023.
That figure is still about 5% below ATL’s pre-pandemic passenger totals for 2019, but de Oliveira said ACI expects Atlanta to handle about 110 million passengers in 2024 — which would bring the airport back to passenger levels from 2019
Globally, passenger traffic in 2023 is up 27% from 2022 to reach almost 94% of 2019 results, with domestic travel recovering faster from the pandemic — up 20% from 2022 . to reach almost 97% of 2019 levels.
The world’s largest domestic market, the United States, had four more airports—all with significant shares of domestic passengers—in the top 10 in 2023: Dallas/Fort Worth (#3), Denver (#6), Los Angeles ( No. 8) and Chicago O’Hare (No. 9).
But in 2023, it was the international market that contributed to the recovery, growing by around 37% to reach around 90% of the 2019 figures. And while Dubai is the No. 2 airport in terms of total traffic, it is the No. 1 in the world for international travelers. Plus, it has become a destination in itself.
London Heathrow, another strong international player, jumped from No. 8 in 2022 to No. 4 last year. But Japan’s Tokyo Haneda made the biggest jump, from No. 16 to No. 5, thanks in large part to Japan’s reopening. This is a welcome indicator that passenger numbers in Asia are getting back on track, de Oliveira said.
Issei Kato/Reuters
Tokyo International Airport, known as Haneda Airport, jumped from number 16 in 2022 to number 5 in 2023.
Istanbul Airport held steady at number 7, while New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport fell one place from number 9 in 2022 to number 10 last year. India, with a huge population that is increasingly connected by air, is an example of capillary network growth of industry in different parts of the world.
“In the US, you have very good capillarity in the system – small, medium and large airports connect to each other. We don’t have that in many parts of the world,” de Oliveira said.
But it is growing rapidly in India, he said, with Air India and IndiGo buying hundreds of planes and the government investing in more than 140 airports in the country.
Total global passenger numbers for 2023 are close to 8.5 billion, according to ACI’s preliminary data.
The global outlook is “very positive” for continued growth. “In 2020, we’ve lost about 20 years of aviation development in one year, so we’re recovering very quickly given that,” de Oliveira said.
In 2023, the system was able to cope better with rising demand than earlier in the pandemic recovery, he said, although there were still some pressure points, including a shortage of American air traffic controllers.
There is also very high demand for new, more efficient aircraft to reduce fuel costs and increase sustainability.
In addition to the latest production slowdown caused by problems with Boeing planes, supply chain delays have contributed to a backlog of orders. Supply chain issues have improved, but the backlog is still significant, de Oliveira said.
A slowdown in aircraft deliveries could affect growth if airlines are unable to keep up with demand, but he added that airlines are therefore likely to delay the retirement of less efficient aircraft to continue to meet strong demand. .
Everything that has happened as a result of the pandemic has highlighted the importance of being prepared for future problems, de Oliveira said, and ACI is working with member airports to become more resilient.
“It’s always with a focus on the passenger … We have this ecosystem, if the ecosystem doesn’t work well, the passenger suffers.”
1. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Georgia (ATL): 104.7 million passengers; 11.7% more than 2022
2. Dubai, United Arab Emirates (DXB): 87 million passengers; 31.7% more than 2022
3. Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas (DFW): 81.8 million passengers; 11.4% more than 2022
4. London Heathrow, United Kingdom (LHR): 79.2 million passengers; 28.5% more than 2022
5. Tokyo Haneda, Japan (HND): 78.7 million passengers; 55.1% more than 2022
6. Denver, Colorado (DEN): 77.8 million passengers; 12.3% more than 2022
7. Istanbul, Turkey (IST): 76 million passengers; 18.3% more than 2022
8. The angels, California (LAX): 75.1 million passengers; 13.8% more than 2022
9. Chicago O’Hare, Illinois (ORD): 73.9 million passengers; 8.1% more than 2022
10. Delhi, India (DEL): 72.2 million passengers; 21.4% more than 2022
