Atlanta remains world's busiest air hub, Dubai top international hub in 2025

Atlanta's Hartsfeld-Jackson International Airport remains the world's busiest airport according to data from Airports Council International (ACI) World.

ACI revealed its 2025 airport passenger traffic rankings, while also reporting global air passenger traffic rose 3.6% compared to 2024 to 9.8 billion last year. It also represents a 7.3% increase compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.

Despite a 1.6% drop in passenger traffic from 2024, Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world for the third year in a row handling 106,302,208 passengers. Atlanta is followed by two Asia/Middle East airports: Dubai (96.10 million) and Tokyo Haneda (91.68 million). The rest of the airports in this year's top 10 busiest airports are Dallas-Fort Worth, Shanghai Pudong, Chicago O'Hare, London Heathrow, Istanbul, Guangzhou Baiyun, and Denver.

Of the top ten airports, there are five airports in the Asia-Pacific. Shanghai Pudong recorded the biggest jump from 10^th in 2024 to 5^th in this year's rankings, seeing a 10.7% increase in passenger traffic. Guangzhou Baiyun enters the top 10 after placing 12^th the year prior, and also saw a 9.5% increase in passenger traffic.

Image Credit: Airports Council International (ACI)

The second biggest region represented is North America, with four hubs in the United States – Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago O'Hare, and Denver.

Dubai Remains the Top International Air Hub

As international passenger traffic rose 5.9% to 4 billion in 2025, Dubai International Airport remains the top international air hub for the third year in a row serving over 95.19 million international passengers. London Heathrow, Incheon Airport in South Korea, Singapore, and Amsterdam remain the 2nd 3rd, 4th, and 5th busiest international hubs for the third year in a row. The bottom five are Istanbul, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, and Doha. 

Five of the top international air hubs are in Asia and the Middle East – Dubai, Incheon, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Doha. 

Image Credit: Airports Council International (ACI)

Hong Kong remains the top air cargo hub handling over 5 million tonnes of cargo in 2025, followed by Shanghai Pudong, and Anchorage. Five of the top 10 cargo hubs are in Asia – Hong Kong, Shanghai Pudong, Incheon, Doha, Taipei Taoyuan, and Guangzhou. 

Image Credit: Airports Council International (ACI)

In terms of aircraft movements, Chicago O'Hare overtook Atlanta in 2025 serving 860,000. The busiest airport in Asia for aircraft movements was Shanghai Pudong which handled over 557,000. 

Image Credit: Airports Council International (ACI)

Powered by Froala Editor