World's busiest airport:
World's busiest airport is a claim that is fiercely fought over by the owners of the world's largest airports. The definition of busiest has been specified by the Airports Council International in Geneva, Switzerland.[1] The ACI defines and measures the following 3 types of airport traffic:
- Passenger traffic
- total passengers enplaned 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]
The following airports have variously made claims (or had claims made for them):
[edit] Busiest Airports
The following airports make claims based on objective volume measures that are well defined and widely accepted within the aviation industry:[citation needed]
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia, United States:
- Largest number of passengers annually. (1998–2008)[5]
- Most arrivals and departures ("operations") annually. (1999–2000, 2005–2007).[6] In 2007, Hartsfield again set the world's record for most aircraft movements in one year with 994,346.[7]
- Most flights (2006).[8]
Memphis International Airport, Memphis, Tennessee, United States
- Most cargo traffic by volume annually. (1993–2006)[9]
[edit] Other current claims
The following airports also make claims based on objective measures, but some of the claims are based on traffic classification:
- Largest number of internationally-bound passengers annually (2004–present)[10]
- Largest number of "origin and destination" (non-connecting) passengers annually (2001–present)[11]
- World's busiest general aviation airport (take-offs and landings annually)[12].
- Most international destinations served.
[edit] Historical claims
- Held from 1932 until O'Hare took the title in 1962, Midway was the world's busiest airport by passenger and aircraft movements. Before World War II, Chicago Midway was the origin or destination of one in four U.S. airline flights.[13]
- Largest number of passengers annually (before 1998)
- Most arrivals and departures annually (before 1998, 2001–2004).
- O'Hare Airport is currently declining in all categories of volume: passengers, cargo and movements.[4]
- The world's busiest domestic-only airport until service to Seoul started. Busiest airport in Japan and Asia.
- The worlds busiest domestic-only airport until service began to Tokyo in October 2007. It only handles 19.3 million passengers, but only defeated Chicago Midway International Airport by around 0.5 million passengers. The international passenger services are served by Shanghai Pudong International Airport, which handles around 60% of the traffic within Shanghai. It is 15th busiest in Asia and 62nd busiest in the world.
[edit] Non-standard claims
Some airports claim world's busiest airport based on criteria other than yearly numbers, usually based on numbers surrounding certain events.
- The world's busiest airport by traffic movements, for the 7 day period during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. 25,000 traffic movements are handled in a week during the yearly event,[14] and air traffic controllers are picked by a competitive selection process to handle this traffic. During the event, a banner reading "WORLD'S BUSIEST CONTROL TOWER" has been hung from the control tower.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Airports Welcome Record 4.4 Billion Passengers in 2006". Airports Council International. Retrieved on 2008-06-13.
- ^ "Passenger Traffic 2007 Preliminary". Airports Council International. Retrieved on 2008-06-13.
- ^ "Cargo Traffic 2007 Preliminary". Airports Council International. Retrieved on 2008-06-13.
- ^ a b "Traffic Movements 2007 Preliminary". Airports Council International. Retrieved on 2008-06-13.
- ^ "Atlanta Hartsfield Earns 'World's Busiest' Title Once Again". Aero-News Network. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
- ^ "Traffic Movements 2006 FINAL". Airports Council International (2007-07-18). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
- ^ "Year-to-Date Airport Traffic Report". Department of Aviation, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (December 2007). Retrieved on 2008-06-13.
- ^ "FAA: Atlanta airport is nation's busiest", USATODAY.com (2007-04-01). Retrieved on 7 March 2008.
- ^ "Memphis takes cargo top spot in 2006", Air Cargo News (2007-03-12). Retrieved on 7 March 2008.
- ^ "Top ten world airports - 2004" (PDF). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
- ^ Fine, Howard (2001-11-26), "LAX emerges as worst U.S.: Airport design Ill-suited for new security screenings - Los Angeles International Airport", Los Angeles Business Journal, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_48_23/ai_88698673, retrieved on 2008-04-22 What's more, LAX has become the world's busiest airport in numbers of arriving and departing passengers. "Other airports may have more passengers going through, but we have more arrivals and departures' said Nancy Castles, spokeswoman for Los Angeles World Airports, the L.A. city agency that operates LAX. "That means more passengers to screen than any other airport."
- ^ "Van Nuys Airport" (HTML). Retrieved on 2009-01-06.
- ^ Michelle Mullins (1999-07-18). "Region leads the way in flight". Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
- ^ "EAA Newsletter, Volume 3, Number 36". Experimental Aircraft Association (August 2003). Retrieved on 2008-12-26.
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