Dubai International overtakes London Heathrow as busiest int'l airport, Istanbul is fastest growing
ACI, in its preliminary world airport traffic and rankings for 2014, stated (26-Mar-2015) Dubai International Airport became the busiest airport for international passenger traffic ahead of London Heathrow Airport. In terms of overall traffic, the top four ranked positions have not changed as compared to 2013, with Atlanta continuing to be the world's busiest airport with more than 96 million passengers. While Beijing (+2.9%) was expected to close the gap, it no longer has double digit-growth as in previous years, placing it in second position. London Heathrow (+1.4%) remains in third while Tokyo Haneda (+5.7%) preserves fourth position. However, Los Angeles (+6%) and Dubai (+6.1%) have moved ahead of Chicago O'Hare (+4.6%), occupying the fifth and sixth rank respectively. Istanbul (+10.7%) remains one of the fastest growing airports among the world's top 20 airports for passenger traffic, moving from 18th to 13th rank ahead of Amsterdam (+4.6%). The world's largest air cargo hub continues to be Hong Kong (+6%). Memphis (+2.9%) is in second followed by Shanghai Pudong (+8.6%) and Seoul Incheon (+3.8%) in third and fourth rank respectively. Anchorage (+3%) moved up ahead of Dubai (-3.1%) to the fifth position. Chicago-O'Hare (-0.2%) has become the world's busiest airport for aircraft movements following a decline in movements at the second ranked Atlanta (-4.7%) in 2014. Los Angeles (+1.7%) and Dallas/Fort Worth (+0.3%) maintained the third and fourth ranked position respectively. Beijing (+2.5%) moved ahead of Denver (-2.9%). [more - original PR]
ACI: "The airport that continued to make its mark in 2014 was Dubai International. The airport has solidified its status as the world's major international connecting hub. Dubai is the fulcrum that connects long-haul international flights from east and west, north and south. That being said, it's sister airport, Dubai World Central, under the same Dubai Airports organisation, is poised to surpass these feats by becoming the world's largest global gateway with capacity of more than 160 million passengers per year and a multi-modal logistics hub for 12 million tonnes of air cargo. Since the commencement of its operations, the airport has already moved up to the 29th busiest air cargo airport in the world handling almost 760,000 metric tonnes of cargo in 2014. With its astonishing capacity and growth, aviation's nucleus certainly has moved eastward," Rafael Echevarne, Economics Director. Source: Company statement, 26-Mar-2015.