World’s busiest passenger and cargo airports in 2023 – a deeper dive

World's busiest passenger and cargo airports are influenced by many, often external, factors

It takes some time to compile the full data, which is why CAPA - Centre for Aviation has held off on a report on the world's busiest airports in 2023 until the recent publication by Airports Council International (ACI) of its World Airport Traffic Dataset.

(There was a CAPA - Centre for Aviation report on the world's busiest air routes in Jan-2024, see: The world's busiest international routes, domestic routes and airports - observations and insights.)

Now that ACI has published that data, comes the opportunity for the leading airports to be assessed, to compare and contrast how passenger and freight demand has changed - or not - since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic late in 2019.

And from the position that 2023 might be considered the first 'normal' year since 2019, for them to reflect on the fact that the world has witnessed the onset of so-called 'revenge travel' since the (northern) summer of 2022, but that it has been highly differentiated by region and finally (critically) - that the first public statement by an airline has just been made (by the European LCC Ryanair, the continent's largest airline) that it sees a downturn in demand for air travel; the first since late 2021, and with a diminution of airfares, and one that it anticipates will continue.

Ditto the announcement, on the day of publication, by Mexico's Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, that it forecasts passenger traffic will be between 3% and 5% lower than 2023 levels this year. The first warnings of a coming downturn on two continents.

Two tables will be considered here: the Top 20 busiest airports as measured by passenger traffic in 2023 compared to 2022 and pre-pandemic year 2019 with associated rates of growth or decline (and with a reference also to aircraft movements); and a similar table for cargo airports (meaning all airports that handle airfreight, not just dedicated cargo or parcels facilities).

Passenger table - airports with the highest number of total passengers in 2023

Rank 2023	Rank 2022	Rank 2019	Airport	Country	Region	Pax 2023 in millions	Percentage change vs. 2022	Percentage change vs. 2019	Rank for aircraft movements in 2023
1	1	1	Atlanta	USA	North America	104.6	11.7	(-5.3)	1
2	5	4	Dubai	UAE	Middle East	87.0	31.7	0.7	Outside Top 20
3	2	10	Dallas-Fort Worth	USA	North America	81.8	11.4	8.9	3
4	8	7	London Heathrow	UK	Europe	79.2	28.5	(-2.1)	13
5	16	5	Tokyo Haneda	Japan	Asia Pacific	78.7	55.1	(-7.9)	10
6	3	16	Denver	USA	North America	77.8	12.3	12.8	4
7	7	28	Istanbul	Türkiye	Europe	76.0	18.3	45.7	8
8	6	3	Los Angeles Int	USA	North America	75.0	13.8	(-14.8)	6
9	4	6	Chicago O'Hare	USA	North America	73.9	8.1	(-12.7)	2
10	9	17	New Delhi	India	Asia Pacific	72.2	21.4	5.4	17
11	10	9	Paris CDG	France	Europe	67.4	17.3	(-11.5)	15
12	58	11	Guangzhou	China	Asia Pacific	63.2	142.0	(-13.9)	14
13	11	20	New York J F K	USA	North America	62.5	13.0	(-0.1)	9
14	13	12	Amsterdam	Netherlands	Europe	61.9	18.0	(-13.7)	11
15	15	22	Madrid	Spain	Europe	60.2	18.9	(-2.5)	Outside Top 20
16	18	15	Frankfurt	Germany	Europe	59.4	21.3	(-15.9)	19
17	36	18	Singapore Changi	Singapore	Asia Pacific	58.9	83.1	(-13.7)	Outside Top 20
18	17	31	Orlando	USA	North America	57.7	15.1	14.1	Outside Top 20
19	12	30	Las Vegas	USA	North America	57.7	9.4	11.6	5
20	99	14	Seoul Incheon	Korea	Asia Pacific	56.2	213.8	(-21.0)	Outside Top 20
Averages							38.2	(-35.9)

Source: ACI and CAPA - Centre for Aviation.

North America - and specifically the US - dominates the passenger chart again, benefitting from its huge domestic network

Of these Top 20 airports, eight are in North America; six in Europe; five in Asia Pacific, and one in the Middle East.

There are none in both of Latin America (South America and the Caribbean) and Africa.

The average passenger growth rate in 2023 versus 2022 was 38.2%, while they remained 35.9% behind the total for 2019.

There is numerical consistency there at least, but not a great deal of consistency otherwise, as pandemic recovery rates still vary considerably between regions, albeit to a lesser extent than they did in the comparable CAPA - Centre for Aviation report in 2023 for 2022.

There is no great change at the top in the sense that the perennial presence of the USA's super hub at Atlanta - the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world - remains, as it continues to occupy the global number 1 spot with 104.6 million passengers in 2023 (it isn't so much about population where Atlanta is concerned - it is a small city within the ninth biggest metropolitan area in the US, with just less than six million in that area's population).

Atlanta is the world's primary domestic hub by far

Atlanta benefits from having only one commercial airport.

Several years ago a scheme to convert a General Aviation airfield, Briscoe Field, to commercial use was abandoned after stiff opposition, including that of Delta Air Lines.

So while collectively New York's airports host over 100mppa, with Chicago's two main airports not far behind, it is the intensely focused domestic hub activity at Atlanta - people just passing through - which keeps it ahead of the pack. International seat capacity there still accounts for only 14% of the total.

Indeed, in the whole of the USA international capacity currently stands at only 24.6%. Compare that to, say, the United Kingdom, where it is 94%.

Dubai consolidates its number 2 spot

Behind Atlanta, Dubai, which is the world's busiest international airport, has consolidated its overall number 2 spot ('international' and 'total' are the same where Dubai is concerned), ahead of London Heathrow, which is the fastest-recovering of the four main European FLAP airports, as they are known (Frankfurt, London Heathrow, Amsterdam and Paris Charles de Gaulle).

And Tokyo's Haneda Airport, which is one of several in Asia Pacific to have witnessed a speedy recovery in 2023, at +55% over 2022, having previously been impacted by the pandemic well into 2022.

Other Asia Pacific airports which benefitted from rapid recovery in 2023 were Singapore Changi (+83%) and Seoul Incheon, where a remarkable +214% improvement over 2022 hoisted it back to the number 20 position. It had been at number 99 the previous year.

South Korea, along with Japan, was particularly badly affected by the pandemic, which lasted up to a year longer than in Europe and North America.

Betting tip - watch out for Delhi's form

Also noteworthy is Delhi's rise from number 17 in 2019 to number 9 in 2022, although it slipped back one place in 2023.

With the fourth highest growth rate among the Top 10 airports in 2023, Delhi looks certain to be a future fixture in the top half of the table, and the only one in heavily populated South Asia to warrant that accolade.

Guangzhou is up and down like a yo-yo, while Beijing and Shanghai do a vanishing act

One cannot ignore Guangzhou, the airport representing China's fifth largest city. As a key industrial and commercial city with a sizeable airport city around it, and one not decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic as others were, it was the world's busiest airport in 2020.

By 2022 it had slumped to number 58 in the world, before bouncing back again in 2023 to where it was in 2019 (number 12/13) in a series of about-turns which merit academic scrutiny in their own right.

Meanwhile, Beijing Capital Airport, which was the world's second busiest airport in 2019, has disappeared out of the Top 20 altogether, along with Shanghai Pudong, the international airport representing China's premier commercial city.

US domestic hubs in general grew rapidly during the pandemic

Returning to the US scene, it is noticeable how many airports continue to be represented in this table, where they played a less significant role before the pandemic.

And specifically Dallas-Fort Worth (number 3 - a mirror image of Atlanta in the west/central part of the US where domestic hubbing is concerned) and Denver (number 6), situated in the Rocky Mountains, which form a central spine to the country and are difficult to navigate by surface transport.

Again their position continues, at least to be supported by the high levels of domestic travel they sustained and created during the pandemic - although they are both starting now to slip down the table as normality returns elsewhere.

Leisure attractions help push Las Vegas and Orlando up the table

Two other US airports make the Top 20 table, mainly as a result of the city-regions' leisure offer - namely Las Vegas, for gambling and top-class entertainment, and Orlando for its theme parks and other family attractions to both a domestic and international audience.

Both are well up the table from where they were before the pandemic, but have not quite retained those positions compared to 2022.

Heathrow fights off a challenge from Charles de Gaulle to retain Europe's number 1 spot, while Istanbul continues to make gains

Looking at the position in Europe, London's Heathrow Airport has clawed its way back to fourth position after a torrid time during the pandemic.

Before COVID-19 Heathrow was facing a serious challenge from Paris' Charles de Gaulle (CDG) Airport for the accolade of Europe's busiest, but having been impacted by it to a worse degree even than Heathrow was, CDG has fallen back to 11^th position, almost 12 million passengers short of the London airport's total for 2023.

Indeed, CDG is only the third busiest European airport after Heathrow and Istanbul, which shot up from 28^th position in 2019 to seventh in both 2022 and 2023.

Istanbul's new airport has been successively and successfully promoted as an alternative global hub to Dubai since it opened in 2018. Further, the city has become one of the elite 100 million passengers per annum club, when the new airport's passenger total (76 million) is added to that of the consistently fast-growing Sabiha Gökçen airport in the east of the city (37 million in 2023).

Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport remained consistently in 12^th-14^th place over the four years, despite prolonged concerns about flight capping by the government and the planned opening of Lelystad Airport to commercial traffic.

Frankfurt has also remained consistent, but for various reasons traffic has been slow to return to German airports generally in 2024, and Frankfurt could struggle to hold on to its position in 2024, with fast-growing Singapore Changi Airport just behind it.

Correlation does not always exist between passenger traffic and aircraft movements

In some cases there is a clear correlation between passenger traffic and aircraft movements, which is evident in the respective rankings - Amsterdam, with its six runways, is again an example.

But in others there is clearly not; the best example is Dubai, which is second for 2023 traffic but not in the table at all for movements, so many of its flights being long haul (58% of seats in week commencing 22-Jul-2024 were on flights between four hours and 10 hours in length). That is why, until recently, it has been able to get by on two runways.

Dubai stands in stark contrast to Atlanta, where that airport is ranked number 1 for movements as well as traffic. At Atlanta 78% of flights are scheduled to operate on routes between 0.5 hours and four hours.

In a seemingly strange anomaly, while Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver and Las Vegas feature in the Top 20 passenger chart (the first two - highly so) and also in the movements table, the popular and growing hub at Charlotte Douglas is ranked seventh for movements, but not at all in the passenger table. In Charlotte's case, a secondary level hub, a massive 86% of its capacity is on flights of up to four hours, while traffic, at 53.5 million, just missed the cut for the 2023 table.

Cargo kept many airports going during the pandemic and some continue to benefit from it

The table ranking the cargo airports makes for even more interesting reading.

The growth in air freight during the pandemic, as many goods were time-critical, is what kept many airports going in 2020 and 2021, but the trend has been 'back to normal' since then, with losses on cargo volume compared to 2019 being reported in broadly as many cases as for passenger traffic.

But of course, air freight also incorporates specific parcels services, some of which might have diminished while others grew in popularity.

Freight table - airports with the highest cargo volume in 2023

Rank 2023	Rank 2022	Rank 2019	Airport	Country	Region	Cargo 2023 in metric tonnes (millions)	Percentage change vs. 2022	Percentage change vs. 2019
1	1	1	Hong Kong	Hong Kong SAR	Asia Pacific	4.33	3.1	(-10.0)
2	2	2	Memphis	USA	North America	3.88	(-4.0)	(-10.2)
3	4	3	Shanghai Pudong	China	Asia Pacific	3.44	10.4	(-5.3)
4	3	6	Anchorage	USA	North America	3.38	(-2.4)	23.1
5	6	5	Seoul Incheon	Korea	Asia Pacific	2.74	(-6.9)	(0.7)
6	5	4	Louisville	USA	North America	2.72	(11.1)	(-2.2)
7	8	12	Miami	USA	North America	2.52	1.0	20.7
8	11	8	Doha	Qatar	Middle East	2.35	1.5	6.3
9	9	13	Los Angeles Int	USA	North America	2.13	(-14.9)	1.9
10	7	9	Taipei	Taiwan	Asia Pacific	2.11	(-16.8)	(-3.2)
11	15	17	Guangzhou	China	Asia Pacific	2.03	7.7	5.7
12	10	10	Tokyo Narita	Japan	Asia Pacific	1.90	(-20.5)	(-9.4)
13	12	18	Chicago O'Hare	USA	North America	1.90	(-14.7)	8.4
14	12	26	Cincinnati	USA	North America	1.90	5.9	67.8
15	14	11	Paris Ch de Gaulle	France	Europe	1.87	(-2.8)	(-11.0)
16	13	14	Frankfurt	Germany	Europe	1.87	(-5.0)	(-10.6)
17	18	7	Dubai	UAE	Middle East	1.80	4.5	(-28.2)
18	16	15	Singapore Changi	Singapore	Asia Pacific	1.75	(-5.9)	(-14.4)
19	23	47	Istanbul	Türkiye	Europe	1.60	11.3	214.7
20	20	24	Shenzhen	China	Asia Pacific	1.60	6.2	24.7
Averages							(-2.67)	13.5

Source: ACI and CAPA - Centre for Aviation.

The fortunes of the cargo sector, which were mainly positive during the pandemic, are represented by an average growth in volume of 13.5% in 2023 compared to 2019 (which could be taken as the last full year of the COVID-19 pandemic), whereas passenger traffic reduced by 35.9%.

On the other hand, there was an average reduction of -2.67% in 2023 compared to 2022, as most of the emergency cargo flights were withdrawn and freighter conversions returned to passenger use, while passenger traffic increased by 38.2%.

Outliers can influence statistical calculations

However, one must apply caution here. Statistics can be misleading.

The 2023/2019 comparison is influenced by a couple of statistical outliers at Cincinnati (+67.8%), which was probably accounted for by parcel handling activity - Amazon's Prime Air service is headquartered there - and Istanbul Airport (+214.7%). In the latter case, IST was a newly opened airport in 2019.

Taking those two outliers out, the result is a minuscule positive one of +0.03%. But at least it is an improvement on 2019.

Eight of the top 20 airports are in Asia Pacific, seven in North America, three in Europe, and two in the Middle East. Again, South America and the Caribbean and Africa are not represented.

Europe does not figure until 15^th place, which is indicative of how the balance of world trade has swung in favour of Asia Pacific, especially where exports of smaller white goods and technological products are concerned - the goods that do not necessitate carriage on container ships.

Alibaba more concerned with merchandises than with thieves

And even more so, the shipment demand from Chinese e-commerce companies specialising in fast fashion globally.

Between them Shein, Temu, Alibaba and TikTok are shipping more than 10,000 tonnes of goods a day, equating to approximately 108 Boeing 777 freighters.

And that is probably one reason why Guangzhou appears in both the passenger and cargo tables. Guangzhou, also a major port, is the main manufacturing hub of the Pearl River Delta, one of mainland China's leading commercial and manufacturing regions; outshone only by Shenzhen in its region, which also crept into the table in 20^th place.

Parcels segment boosts three US airports to a cargo table ranking, including the number 2 spot

The importance of the parcels sector is emphasised by the fact that three airports that support that activity primarily are in the table - Memphis (number 2); Louisville (number 6) and Cincinnati (number 14), all of them in the US, although there are parcel trans-shipment facilities at most of the airports here.

Meanwhile Anchorage (number 4) - an airport which prospered when aircraft could not fly longer distances without refueling, thus offering a passenger air bridge between North America and Asia Pacific, has reinvented itself as a trans-shipment centre for e-commerce activities generally.

Doha outranks Dubai!

The Middle East has two representatives in this table, twice the result in the passenger one, and it is interesting to note how Doha outranks Dubai by quite a margin - number 8 versus number 17.

Doha, as home to Qatar Airways, witnessed that airline transform itself into the world's leading passenger airline undertaking freight operations during the pandemic, either on its own behalf or chartered to other airlines or nations. It even meant carrying packages in seats and on the cabin floor when there wasn't time to strip the aircraft.

The knock-on effect of those activities continues today, and Doha has resumed its 2019 position in the table.

Conversely, Dubai, where the primary airline did not respond in quite the same manner, slipped 11 places in the table between 2019 and 2022, recovering one place in 2023.

Narita more significant for cargo than Haneda

Tokyo Narita appears in the cargo table (number 12), slightly down on its previous positions, rather than Haneda Airport, which is much larger for passengers (number 5) while Narita remains as the primary international airport. A recent CAPA - Centre for Aviation report examined the changing nature of Narita as its role swings towards one of a low cost carrier facility with leisure-oriented long haul routes.

Its position here suggests that the USD5 billion that will be spent in rebuilding it might justify a sizeable contribution to freight service development.

Greater consistency in the cargo table

Overall, there is greater consistency in the cargo table; after all there is no passenger choice to take into account. Aircraft fly from where the goods are to where the demand is - it is as simple as that, and that mainly means from east to west.

Hence the first three, led by all-conquering Hong Kong, the Atlanta of the freight world, have been set in stone for the period under review, something which cannot be said about the leading passenger airports, where some have come into contention out of nowhere, while others have dropped out of sight.

Nine airports appear in both tables

Nine airports appear in both tables - Dubai, Seoul Incheon, Los Angeles, Guangzhou, Chicago O'Hare, Paris CDG, Frankfurt, Singapore Changi and Istanbul. None of them are identified as specialists in the parcels segment. All are to be found in large urban conurbations.

Perhaps it is these nine that should be recognised as world leaders in the airport sector right now.