World's busiest airports by number of passengers 2021

The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport regained its top spot as the world's busiest airport in 2021, with some 75.7 million passengers uplifted. The Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, with over 40.26 million passengers in 2021, fell from its 2020 top spot to the eigth position, partly due to the measures taken by the Chinese government to curb the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

International airports

After the first successful flights, it became evident that aircraft will form a new major transport industry, namely the aviation industry. As a response to high interest in the aviation industry, since the 1910s across the world multitude of airports opened up to facilitate air transportation. For instance, there were nearly 20,100 U.S. airports in operation in 2021. By ownership type, there are public and private airports operating. Between 1990 and 2021, the number of private airports increased rapidly while the number of publicly owned airport continued to decline. To attract more opportunities, airports improve their connectivity with other airports and offer a wider web of possible flight connections. In 2019, the U.S. was the most connected country in the aviation by airport connectivity score. In 2021, Dubai (DXB) Airport was the leading airport for international air passenger traffic worldwide.

Frankfurt Airport

One of the largest airports in Europe, Frankfurt am Main (FRA) airport was established in 1936 as a commercial airport. Frankfurt Airport expanded its operations after the 1960s at a rapid pace, thus, becoming one of the busiest one in Europe. In 2021, Frankfurt Airport generated only 2.14 billion euros from its operations. Frankfurt Airport generated most of its revenue from international activities and services provided during that period. Performing both as passenger and cargo hub for transportation, the airport continues to offer its global operations at high efficiency without compromising quality. The airport offered the best hub connectivity worldwide, with nearly 56,000 hub connections in 2022.