A new report has revealed the busiest airports in the world for 2025, with one UK aviation hub retaining a spot in the top 10.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, in the US, was the busiest airport in the world last year in terms of total passenger traffic, according to the Airports Council International (ACI) annual rankings.
The Georgia airport retained the top spot after more than 106 million passengers travelled through it last year.
It had the title of the world’s busiest airport for 22 consecutive years up until 2020, when Covid restrictions saw passenger numbers drop.
In 2021, Atlanta airport returned to the top of the list and has remained there since.
However, in 2025, overall passenger traffic fell by 1.6 per cent year on year. More than 108 million passengers travelled through the airport in 2024.
In second place on the list is, Dubai International airport, which recorded more than 95 million passengers in 2025 – a 3.1 per cent increase from the previous year.
The hub’s large numbers can be attributed to its role as a gateway to the UAE and its large number of connecting flights.
The airport may fall down the rankings next year, however, after passenger numbers plunged by more than half due to flight restrictions caused by the Iran-US war. Some 18.6 million passengers were reported in the first quarter of 2026, down 20.6 per cent year on year.
In third place for 2025 is Tokyo Haneda, which rose an impressive 6.7 per cent in passenger traffic to more than 91 million.
London Heathrow is the busiest airport by passenger traffic in Europe and the seventh busiest in the world, with 84 million passengers.
This is closely followed by the transcontinental city Istanbul, which recorded just 44,000 fewer passengers than Heathrow.
Other European airports, Paris (72m), Amsterdam (68m) and Madrid (68m) made it into the top 20.
Overall, global air travel reached 9.8 billion in 2025 across the 2,817 airports in more than 180 countries and territories according to the ACI dataset.
The world’s 20 busiest airports handled 1.59 billion passengers, representing 16 per cent of all air travellers globally.
The 10 busiest airports in the world in 2025, based on passenger traffic
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, Georgia, US: 106,302,208 passengers
- Dubai International, UAE: 95,192,160 passengers
- Tokyo Haneda, Japan: 91,679,814 passengers
- Dallas Fort Worth International, Texas, US: 85,660,127 passengers
- Shanghai Pudong International, China: 84,994,548 passengers
- O’Hare International, Chicago, US: 84,856,018 passengers
- London Heathrow, UK: 84,482,126 passengers
- Istanbul airport, Turkey: 84,437,710 passengers
- Guangzhou Baiyun International, China: 83,582,952 passengers
- Denver International, Colorado, US: 82,427,962 passengers
According to the Airports Council International (ACI) annual rankings.
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