Airports Council International (ACI) released the 2015 ACI World Airport Traffic Report. With data coverage for over 2,300 airports in 160 countries worldwide, ACI’s publication remains the authoritative source and industry reference for the latest airport traffic data, rankings and trends in air transport.
“ACI continues to deliver an exhaustive review of airport traffic data and analyses in an internationally comparable format,” said Angela Gittens, director general of ACI World. “This provides our members, the wider aviation and financial community a global view of air transport demand. The airport industry is incredibly dynamic and having a reliable data source to count on is more important than ever.”
The 2015 ACI World Traffic Report named the world’s busiest airports based on international and domestic passenger traffic, with the top three in each category being revealed below.
The world’s busiest international airports (measured by international passenger traffic):
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates – DXB (77.5 million, up 10.7% over 2014).
- London, United Kingdom – LHR (69.8 million, up 2.5% over 2014).
- Hong Kong, China – HKG (68.1 million, up 8.2% over 2014).
The world’s busiest domestic airports (measured by domestic passenger traffic):
- Atlanta – ATL (90.3 million, up 5.7% over 2014).
- Beijing, China (People’s Republic of China) – PEK (71.3 million, up 3.0% over 2014).
- Chicago – ORD (65.9 million, up 11.2% over 2014).
Here are some additional findings from the 2015 report:
- Persistence and resilience are two themes that best describe air transport demand in 2015. The large increase in passenger traffic of 6.4% represents the strongest growth rate since 2010.
- While there were 16 airports with over 40 million passengers in 2005, this number has more than doubled and risen to a total of 37 airports by 2015.
- The significant growth of intercontinental hubs in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East reveals that air transport’s nucleus continues to move eastward.
“It is important to maintain cautious optimism as we navigate through 2016,” Gittens said. “There are several impediments that could curtail the continued rise in demand, which could potentially encumber growth prospects over the short- and medium-terms. Specifically, these are related to geo-political unrest, terrorisms and threats to security in certain parts of the world. Physical capacity considerations and potential bottlenecks in air transport infrastructure also pose challenges in accommodating future air transport demand.
"Finally, protectionist policies that retreat from further economic integration and air transport liberalization could have adverse contractionary effects on the air transport industry.”
