Airports Council International Ranks Busiest Airports
Airports Council International (ACI) preliminary traffic results, based on reports from over 900 airports worldwide, indicate that global passenger traffic grew at a better than expected rate of 6.3 percent and cargo rose strongly by 15.2 percent, as compared to 2009. Aircraft movements remained stable at just under 1 percent.
ACI World Director General Angela Gittens comments, “2010 underscored the resilience of the air transport business and resulted in over 5 billion annual passengers for the first time ever. 2010 also pronounced the shift and divergence in growth across the regions. While North America and Europe have struggled to reach pre-crisis passenger volumes, Asia-Pacific, Latin America-Caribbean and Middle East sustained a strong momentum and gained market share through double digit growth.”
Monthly passenger growth worldwide in 2010 was consistently high between 5 percent and 10 percent with the exception of a significant setback in April due to the volcanic ash cloud that hit Europe particularly hard. Another anomaly impacting traffic mainly in Europe was the unusually harsh winter weather in December. Despite these setbacks Europe still registered growth of 4.3 percent in 2010 thanks to strong international summer and fall traffic.
A slow economic recovery and restraint of air carriers in adding domestic capacity has led to modest growth in North America of 2.4 percent keeping passenger numbers below pre-crisis levels in that region.
Asia-Pacific has benefited from a 14.2 percent rise of international passengers resulting in a total increase of 11.5 percent. Latin America-Caribbean enjoyed strong domestic traffic growth particularly in Brazil and other Latin American countries as national economies and low cost carriers expand quickly.
International traffic was also important in Africa which registered 8.8 percent more passengers in total while 11.5 percent more passengers arrived and departed in the Middle East.
The recovery was more coherent and comprehensive in the freight sector where all regions showed a robust double digit increase led by Asia-Pacific (+18.6%) and Europe (+17%). International freight was the driver of the air freight recovery as total tonnage jumped by 20.5 percent compared to 2009.
Aircraft movements increased the most in Latin America-Caribbean (+6.2%), Middle East (+6.1%) and Asia-Pacific (+5%) while movements continued to decline in Europe (-0.4%) and North America (-1.2%).
Gittens concludes,”Passenger and freight growth clearly surpassed global GDP growth in 2010. GDP growth projections for this and the coming years are high creating a positive outlook for demand for air transport. This underpins the need to continue to expand and modernize airport infrastructure to maintain high standards of efficiency and customer service. More than ever, airports will be asked to finance these projects autonomously without public funds requiring private and public airports to be empowered to generate necessary returns on their investment.”
Airport ranking
Among the largest airports in the world Beijing (+13%) leaped to the second rank eyeing Atlanta (+1.5%) which continues to be the world’s largest airport. London Heathrow dropped to the fourth rank overtaken by Beijing and Chicago O’Hare (+3.3%). Only two airports in the top 30 did not grow in 2010, Las Vegas (-2.6%) and London Heathrow (-0.2%). Charlotte (+10.4%) was the only large airport outside Asia-Pacific and Middle East growing by more than 10 percent. See tables 1, 2, 3.
SUMMARY: Preliminary Results For 2010, Compared to 2009
Total Passengers: +6.3%
Total International Passengers: +7.5%
Total Cargo (includes mail): +15.2%
Total International Freight: +20.5%
Total Aircraft Movements: +0.8%
* Please note that all figures and percentages are based on submissions by 906 airports. The final confirmed report will be published in August 2011 and will include 1300+ airports; therefore figures are subject to variation.
| Traffic Movements 2009 FINAL | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last update: August 5 2010 | |||
| Rank | City (Airport) | Total Movements | % Change |
| 1 | ATLANTA GA, US (ATL) | 970 235 | ( 0.8) |
| 2 | CHICAGO IL, US (ORD) | 827 899 | ( 6.1) |
| 3 | DALLAS/FORT WORTH TX, US (DFW) | 638 782 | ( 2.7) |
| 4 | LOS ANGELES CA, US (LAX) | 634 383 | ( 15.9) |
| 5 | DENVER CO, US (DEN) | 607 019 | ( 2.0) |
| 6 | HOUSTON TX, US (IAH) | 538 168 | ( 6.6) |
| 7 | PARIS, FR (CDG) | 525 314 | ( 6.2) |
| 8 | LAS VEGAS NV, US (LAS) | 511 064 | ( 11.7) |
| 9 | CHARLOTTE NC, US (CLT) | 509 448 | ( 5.0) |
| 10 | BEIJING, CN (PEK) | 488 505 | 13.2 |
| 11 | PHILADELPHIA PA, US (PHL) | 472 668 | ( 3.9) |
| 12 | LONDON, GB (LHR) | 466 393 | ( 2.6) |
| 13 | FRANKFURT, DE (FRA) | 463 111 | ( 4.7) |
| 14 | PHOENIX AZ, US (PHX) | 457 207 | ( 9.0) |
| 15 | MADRID, ES (MAD) | 435 179 | ( 7.4) |
| 16 | DETROIT MI, US (DTW) | 432 589 | ( 6.5) |
| 17 | MINNEAPOLIS MN, US (MSP) | 432 395 | ( 3.9) |
| 18 | NEW YORK NY, US (JFK) | 416 945 | ( 5.5) |
| 19 | NEWARK NJ, US (EWR) | 411 607 | ( 5.3) |
| 20 | TORONTO ON, CA (YYZ) | 407 352 | ( 5.4) |
| 21 | AMSTERDAM, NL (AMS) | 406 974 | ( 8.9) |
| 22 | PHOENIX AZ, US (DVT) | 402 335 | 6.9 |
| 23 | MUNICH, DE (MUC) | 396 805 | ( 8.2) |
| 24 | SAN FRANCISCO CA, US (SFO) | 379 751 | ( 2.1) |
| 25 | SALT LAKE CITY UT, US (SLC) | 372 300 | ( 4.4) |
| 26 | NEW YORK NY, US (LGA) | 354 594 | ( 6.5) |
| 27 | MIAMI FL, US (MIA) | 351 417 | ( 7.5) |
| 28 | LOS ANGELES CA, US (VNY) | 351 285 | ( 9.2) |
| 29 | MEXICO CITY, MX (MEX) | 348 306 | ( 5.0) |
| 30 | BOSTON MA, US (BOS) | 345 306 | ( 7.1) |
Total Movements: landing + take off of an aircraft.