World's busiest airport
The definition of world's busiest airport has been specified by the Airports Council International in Geneva, Switzerland.[1] The ACI defines and measures the following three types of airport traffic:
- Passenger traffic: total passengers emplaned and deplaned, passengers in transit counted once[2]
- Cargo traffic: loaded and unloaded freight and mail in metric tonnes[3]
- Traffic movements: landings and take-offs of aircraft[4]
Busiest airports
The following airports make claims based on objective volume measures that are defined above (as per ACI):
- Most passengers annually (1998–present)[5]
- Most aircraft movements annually (2015–present)[6]
- Most international passengers annually (2014–present)[7]
- Most cargo traffic by weight annually (2010–present)[8]
- Most passengers annually in all city airports combined (2010-present)[9]
Historical claims
- In the late 1940s, Chicago Midway was the busiest airport in the United States by total aircraft operations – i.e., including every training aircraft practicing take-offs and landings.[10] New York LaGuardia had the most airline operations and passengers until the early 1950s, when Chicago became the busiest airport in the United States by any criterion. Before World War II, Chicago Midway was the origin or destination of one in four U.S. airline flights,[11] although a 1939 Official Aviation Guide shows more airline flights scheduled at Newark than at Chicago.
- As the home of Fedex Express, Memphis had the largest cargo operations worldwide from 1993 to 2009. It remains the busiest cargo airport in the United States and the Western Hemisphere.[12]
Non-standard claims
- Gatwick has the world's busiest single-use runway. It does have two runways on site but the close proximity of the two and the length and lack of guidance for the second means that only one is used.[13]
- Wittman Regional Airport typically does not receive an above average amount of air traffic, however, for one week a year it is the busiest airport in the world in terms of amount of air traffic. The event EAA AirVenture Oshkosh typically begins on the last Monday of July, and brings in tremendous amounts of air traffic during that time.
See also
References
External links
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