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Travel & placesEpisode 312Globe 3D1:08

Busiest airports in the world 2025: top 10

Passengers per airport in 2025, millions

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Guess the number: passengers at one airport

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Source: ACI World, final 2025 rankings · 2025

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10 on the list. The figures appear here once the clip gives the answer away.

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How to read this chart: Beam length is the value; the scoreboard under the globe lists every country in rank order with its exact figure, the top spot sealed until the reveal. On the live chart, drag to spin the globe. More on globe 3d charts.

The takeaway

Only one airport topped 100 million passengers in 2025. The next seven sat within 3.3 million of each other.

The data

The numbers

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Source: ACI World, final 2025 rankings. Covering 2025.

What the numbers show

Airports Council International (ACI) World counted the passengers at airports around the world in 2025. At the top of its final ranking, one airport handled more than 100 million passengers, and no other airport reached that level. Dubai International came second with 95.2 million, and Tokyo Haneda third with 91.7 million.

Below the top three, the race is tight. Dallas/Fort Worth had 85.7 million passengers, Shanghai Pudong 85.0 million, Chicago O'Hare 84.9 million, London Heathrow 84.5 million, Istanbul 84.4 million, Guangzhou Baiyun 83.6 million and Denver 82.4 million. Those seven airports sit within 3.3 million passengers of each other, so one busy or quiet year can reorder them. Four of the ten are in the United States.

Rankings move. Shanghai Pudong climbed from 10th place in 2024 to 5th in 2025. Guangzhou Baiyun grew by 9.5% over the year, while Dallas/Fort Worth fell by 2.5%.

ACI counts passengers arriving plus passengers leaving, and counts people changing planes once. A person who flies out and back counts twice. The figures here are ACI's final 2025 data, published in July 2026 and rounded to 0.1 million. Preliminary numbers came out in April and moved slightly: Chicago O'Hare was listed at 84.8 million before the final count made it 84.9 million. ACI's data covers 2,817 airports across more than 180 countries and territories. The 20 busiest airports handled 1.59 billion passengers, which is 16% of the 9.8 billion air travellers worldwide.

Passengers are not the only way to call an airport busy. The AJC newspaper reported in April 2026 that the airport with the most passengers fell behind Chicago O'Hare in total flights in 2025. Passenger volume is widely seen as the more important figure. So the busiest title depends on the measure. This ranking counts passengers only. It says nothing about cargo, or about how many of the passengers are connecting.

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Transcript

  1. 106.3 million passengers used one airport in 2025. Which one?

  2. Here are the ten busiest airports of 2025, counted by passengers. Tenth is Denver, with 82.4 million passengers. Ninth is Guangzhou, in China, with 83.6 million. Eighth is Istanbul, with 84.4 million. Seventh is London Heathrow, with 84.5 million. Sixth is Chicago O'Hare, with 84.9 million. Fifth is Shanghai Pudong, with 85 million. Fourth is Dallas Fort Worth, with 85.7 million. Third is Tokyo Haneda, with 91.7 million. Second is Dubai, with 95.2 million. And first is Atlanta, with — 106.3 million passengers. The busiest airport in the world.

  3. Should the busiest airport be the one with the most passengers or the most flights? Comment your answer. Then like, share and follow for the next one.

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