The world’s airports accommodated 8.8 billion passengers, 122.7 million metric tonnes of cargo, and 99.9 million aircraft movements.
The top airports for passengers, cargo and aircraft movements are revealed by the recent World Airport Traffic Report published by Airports Council International (ACI).
The world’s top three airports for passenger traffic volume – Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Beijing Capital International Airport, and Dubai International Airport respectively – have held their positions while Los Angeles International Airport (fourth) and Tokyo International Airport (fifth) have swapped places in the top five from last year.
“The World Airport Traffic Report shows that, even as smaller airports around the world continue to make strong gains, the largest hub airports continue to grow,” ACI World Director General Angela Gittens said. “There were 16 airports handling more than 40 million passengers per annum in 2008 and there are now 54.
“Collectively, these airports achieved a year-over-year passenger traffic growth of +5.1% in 2018 which is significant considering a large proportion of these airports are in the mature and capacity-constrained markets of North America and Europe.”
Most of the world’s fastest-growing airports are located in emerging markets, a significant proportion of them being in the Asia-Pacific region. As many as 12 of the fastest-growing top 30 airports in 2018 are located in either China or India.
“India’s move towards a more liberalized aviation market and the nation’s strengthening economic fundamentals have helped it become one of the fastest-growing markets with its traffic growing rapidly in a relatively short time,” Gittens said.
“Major Russian airports also experienced significant gains in traffic following on from difficult economic times in 2015 and 2016 and they also received a boost in traffic numbers as a result of the FIFA World Cup.”
As regards total cargo volumes, the top five airports – Hong Kong International Airport, Memphis International Airport, Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Incheon International Airport, and Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport respectively – all held their positions from the previous year.
Big movers were Los Angeles International Airport which jumped three places from thirteenth to tenth this year and Doha International Airport which advanced five places from sixteenth, last year, to eleventh.
Rockford, an expansive air cargo hub in the United States, was the fastest-growing airport in 2018 for airports that handled more than 250,000 metric tonnes of air cargo. Positioning itself as an e-commerce freight hub for online retail giant Amazon, the airport’s traffic grew +56.6% in 2018.
For total aircraft movements, Chicago O’Hare International Airport has taken top spot from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, recording a growth rate of +4.2%.
