Humanities › Geography Busiest Airports The 30 Busiest Passenger Airports in the World Share Flipboard Email Print Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, Arizona is one the world's busiest airports. Brian Stablyk/Getty Images Geography Urban Geography Basics Physical Geography Political Geography Population Country Information Key Figures & Milestones Maps By Matt Rosenberg Matt Rosenberg Geography Expert M.A., Geography, California State University - Northridge B.A., Geography, University of California - Davis Matt Rosenberg is an award-winning geographer and the author of "The Handy Geography Answer Book" and "The Geography Bee Complete Preparation Handbook." Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on January 17, 2020 This is a list of the thirty busiest airports for passenger traffic, based on finalized 2008 data from the Airports Council International. Since 1998, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States has been the world's busiest passenger airport. Numbers represent the number of passengers enplaned and deplaned with passengers in transit counted only once. 1. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport - 90,039,280 2. O'Hare International Airport (Chicago) - 69,353,654 3. Heathrow Airport (London) - 67,056,228 4. Haneda Airport (Tokyo) - 65,810,672 5. Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport - 60,851,998 6. Los Angeles International Airport - 59,542,151 7. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport - 57,069,331 8. Beijing Capital International Airport - 55,662,256* 9. Frankfurt Airport - 53,467,450 10. Denver International Airport - 51,435,575 11. Madrid Barajas Airport - 50,823,105 12. Hong Kong International Airport - 47,898,000 13. John F. Kennedy International Airport (New York City) - 47,790,485 14. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol - 47,429,741 15. McCarran International Airport (Las Vegas) - 44,074,707 16. George Bush Intercontinental Airport (Houston) - 41,698,832 17. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport - 39,890,896 18. Bangkok International Airport - 38,604,009 19. Singapore Changi Airport - 37,694,824 20. Dubai International Airport - 37,441,440 (New to the list) 21. San Francisco International Airport - 37,405,467 22. Orlando International Airport - 35,622,252 23. Newark Liberty International Airport (New Jersey) - 35,299,719 24. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport - 35,144,841 25. Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport (Rome) - 35,132,879 (New to the list) 26. Charlotte Douglas International Airport (North Carolina) - 34,732,584 (New to the list) 27. Munich Airport - 34,530,593 28. London Gatwick Airport - 34,214,474 29. Miami International Airport - 34,063,531 30. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport - 34,032,710 * Beijing Capital International Airport saw a seven million passenger increase from 2006 to 2008, likely due to the 2008 Summer Games held in Beijing. Airports that previously made the top thirty ranking list for busiest airports but are not on this year's ranking of the busiest airports include: Narita International Airport (Tokyo), and Philadelphia International Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport (Canada). Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Rosenberg, Matt. "Busiest Airports." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/busiest-airports-1435771. Rosenberg, Matt. (2020, August 27). Busiest Airports. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/busiest-airports-1435771 Rosenberg, Matt. "Busiest Airports." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/busiest-airports-1435771 (accessed April 1, 2023). copy citation