WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (UPI) — Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport retained its title of world’s busiest airport with 96 million passengers in 2014, a trade group reported.
Beijing’s airport was second on the list, which was prepared by Washington-based Airports Council International (ACI), with 88 million passengers.
Atlanta and Beijing held the same rankings in 2013, though with a wider spread. Traffic increased by 1.9 percent at Atlanta in 2014 and Beijing saw a 2.9 percent increase.
The rest of the council’s top 10 list, unveiled Monday was, in order, the major airports of London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Dubai, Chicago, Paris, Dallas-Fort Worth and Hong Kong. Each saw an increase of passenger traffic in 2014.
“Passenger traffic remained resilient in the face of the global uncertainties that beleaguered many economies in 2013 and 2014. International tourism, in particular, was irrepressible in 2014 considering the geopolitical risks that have persisted in certain parts of the world, such as eastern Europe and the Middle East. Overall global passenger traffic grew at a rate of over 5 percent. This is above the 4.3 percent average annual growth rate in passenger traffic from 2004 to 2014,” Angela Gittens, ACI director general, said in a statement.
The honor of world’s busiest airport has been Hartsfield-Jackson’s since the 1990s, though Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport had fewer passengers but more takeoffs and landings in 2014.
