Air traffic officially back after COVID: World's top 10 busiest airports

Global number of passengers finally surpassed pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels

Air traffic is officially back after the Covid-19 pandemic, as the global number of passengers surpassed 2019 levels.

According to CNN, it took global travellers more than five years to recover from the massive disruption caused by Covid-19.

Airports Council International (ACI) World on Monday, April 14, 2025, released preliminary global airport data which revealed that there were about 9.5 billion passengers globally in 2024, a massive 3.8% gain from pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and a 9% increase over last year.

Justin Erbacci, the director of the ACI World that represents the interests of 2,181 airports in 170 countries, told CNN, “We’re very happy to see that the traffic is back, and we’re anticipating significant growth moving forward right now, even with some of the headwinds that we’re seeing.”

“Coming out of the pandemic, we saw that the hub airports in the US grew very fast, actually even during the pandemic, because the major airlines were emphasising their hubs,” he added.

The busiest airport in the world during 2024 was Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The Delta Air Lines hub has held its No. 1 spot for 26 of the last 27 years. It only slipped from its top position during Covid in 2020.

Dubai International Airport retained back its position in the top 10 and became the second-busiest airport in the world in 2024, while Dallas Fort Worth International Airport got third place on the list.

Here is the list of the top ten busiest airports in the world for passenger traffic last year.