While Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport has held the top spot for more than two decades – not including 2020, due to the pandemic – there is a shuffle up of the top 10 busiest airports list, according to Airports Council International’s preliminary rankings for 2023. 

For the first time and its highest ever ranking, Dubai has taken out the second spot. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta saw a whopping 104.7 million passengers travel through the airport in 2023, while Dubai welcomed 87 million passengers. While Dubai came in second, it is the number one airport in the world for international passengers. 

International travel saw the biggest growth in 2023, up 27% from 2022 and almost reached 94% of 2019’s results, which means international passenger levels have almost reached pre-pandemic levels. Domestic travel also saw a jump, up 20% year-on-year and just 3% off from 2019. 

Here’s the full list of the top 10 busiest airports for passenger traffic in the world: 

1. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Georgia (ATL):  104.7 million passengers; up 11.7% from 2022
2. Dubai, United Arab Emirates (DXB):  87 million passengers; up 31.7% from 2022
3. Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas (DFW): 81.8 million passengers; up 11.4% from 2022
4. London Heathrow, United Kingdom (LHR): 79.2 million passengers; up 28.5% from 2022
5. Tokyo Haneda, Japan (HND): 78.7 million passengers; up 55.1% from 2022
6. Denver, Colorado (DEN): 77.8 million passengers; up 12.3% from 2022
7. Istanbul, Turkey (IST): 76 million passengers; up 18.3% from 2022
8. Los Angeles, California (LAX): 75.1 million passengers; up 13.8% from 2022
9. Chicago O’Hare, Illinois (ORD): 73.9 million passengers; up 8.1% from 2022
10. Delhi, India (DEL): 72.2 million passengers; up 21.4% from 2022

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