Charlotte Douglas International Airport Is The 7th Busiest In The World New Data Shows
Yes, you read that correctly. New data shows that Charlotte Douglas International Airport is the 7th busiest airport, not in the US but worldwide. This data comes from Airports Council…
Yes, you read that correctly. New data shows that Charlotte Douglas International Airport is the 7th busiest airport, not in the US but worldwide. This data comes from Airports Council International who recently released their yearly rankings. This is based on data from 2022. They actually rank the busiest airports based on a few different metrics this includes lists calculated by the following:
- Passengers (total passengers enplaned and deplaned counting passengers in transit one time)
- International Passengers (total international passengers enplaned and deplaned)
- Cargo (loaded and unloaded freight and mail including transit freight)
- International Freight (international freight loaded and unloaded including transit freight)
- Aircraft Movements (landings and takeoffs)
So which one of these did Charlotte Douglas International Airport rank 7th in? The last one - aircraft movements. This is actually down two spots from 2021 when CLT ranked 5th. In 2022 505,589 flights took off or landed in Charlotte. That's a lot of planes. I was on a few of them but nowhere near that amount! One thing I found interesting about this data is that for both total passengers as well as aircraft movements these lists are very top-heavy with US cities. Atlanta took both of those titles. This confirms that while that drive to Atlanta from Charlotte is terrible, it's probably better than flying! Does it surprise you that Charlotte Douglas International Airport is the 7th busiest in the world? Keep reading to see the full top 1o airports for aircraft movements below and read the full methodology from Airports Council International here.
10. Istanbul, TR (IST)
Total Aircraft Movements: 425,890
2021 Rank: 33
9. New York, NY (JFK)
Total Aircraft Movements: 448,847
2021 Rank: 27
8. Miami, FL (MIA)
Total Aircraft Movements: 458,478
2021 Rank: 9
7. Charlotte, NC (CLT)
Total Aircraft Movements: 505,589
2021 Rank: 5
6. Los Angeles, CA (LAX)
Total Aircraft Movements: 556,913
2021 Rank: 6
5. Las Vegas, NV (LAS)
Total Aircraft Movements: 581,116
2021 Rank: 7
4. Denver, CO (DEN)
Total Aircraft Movements: 607,786
2021 Rank: 4
3. Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (DFW)
Total Aircraft Movements: 565,676
2021 Rank: 3
2. Chicago, IL (ORD)
Total Aircraft Movements: 711,561
2021 Rank: 2
1. Atlanta, GA (ATL)
Total Aircraft Movements: 724,145
2021 Rank: 1
Busiest Airports By Passengers
- Atlanta, GA (ATL)
- Dallas Fort Worth, TX (DFW)
- Denver, CO (DEN)
- Chicago, IL (ORD)
- Dubai, AE (DXB)
- Los Angeles, CA (LAX)
- Istanbul, TR (IST)
- London, GB (LHR)
- New Delhi, IN (DEL)
- Paris, FR (CDG)
Busiest Airports By International Passengers
- Dubai, AE (DXB)
- London, GB (LHR)
- Amsterdam, NL (AMS)
- Paris, FR (CDG)
- Istanbul, TR (IST)
- Frankfurt, DE (FRA)
- Madrid, ES (MAD)
- Doha, QR (DOH)
- Singapore, SG (SIN)
- London, GB (LGW)
