U.S. airports dominated the passenger traffic rankings in 2021, with eight of the top 10 in the United States.
in passenger volume in 2020 by Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in China, breaking the Atlanta airport’s 22-year streak in the top slot.
Guangzhou’s airport dropped to No. 8 in 2021, with 40.3 million passengers. Another airport in China, Chengdu’s Shuangliu International Airport, is ninth on the 2021 list, down from No. 3 in 2020. In 2021, there were an estimated 4.5 billion passengers globally, according to ACI. That figure represents a nearly 25% increase from 2020 but more than 50% drop from 2019.Given the much faster recovery of domestic travel compared with international travel, airports that were way down the list of the world’s busiest airports pre-pandemic have leaped up into the top 10.
China’s dominance in 2020 was because of the early rebound of domestic travel in China. The country still has not reopened to international visitors. “Those markets that had very high proportions of international traffic were of course hurt as a result of all these restrictions and quarantine requirements,” Lucas said.