Busiest Airports

This is a list of the thirty busiest airports for passenger traffic, based on finalized 2008 data from the Airports Council International. A more recent list of the busiest airports in the world is also available here on my site.

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).