Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport has retained its position of being the world’s busiest airport, with 96.1 million domestic and international passengers travelling through its terminals in 2014, according to a new World Airport Traffic Report (WATR).
Hartsfield-Jackson maintained its lead over Beijing Capital International Airport and London Heathrow Airport which had 86.1 million and 73.4 million passengers respectively.
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These airports were followed by Tokyo Haneda with 72.8 million and Los Angeles Internal with 70.6 million passenger traffic.
Atlanta airport saw a rise of 1.9% over 2013, while Beijing’s growth was at 2.9% in 2014 as compared to a double-digit growth it had experienced in the previous years.
Dubai airport ranked first in terms of international passenger traffic but is the sixth-busiest airport in the world in overall passenger traffic.
Airports Council International World director general Angela Gittens said: "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.
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By GlobalData"The Ebola outbreak also presented significant challenges to the aviation sector. Notwithstanding, by and large, the international traveller in 2014 appears to have been immune to these potential dangers."
Gittens further noted that the overall global passenger traffic rose by 5.7% above the 4.3% average annual growth rate in passenger traffic from 2004 to 2014.
According to the report, London remains the world’s largest airport system with almost 147 million passengers handled at six airports, followed by New York with 116 million passengers at three airports and Tokyo with 109 million passengers.
The WATR analysed data from more than 2,200 airports in around 160 countries across the globe.
Image: The busiest airport in the world is Hartsfield-Jackson. Photo: courtesy of Craig Butz.
