China accounts for seven of top ten busiest airports worldwide, new ACI reports shows

INTERNATIONAL. Airports Council International (ACI) World has today released its 2021 World Airport Traffic Report (WATR), which shows that Guangzhou Bai Yun International was the world’s busiest airport for passengers in 2020. As reported previously, Dubai International (DXB) led the international traffic rankings, followed by Amsterdam and London Heathrow, last year.

The updated traffic report from ACI shows the rise of Chinese airports in the rankings, buoyed by resurgent domestic traffic in 2020

The US is now home to only three of the top ten busiest airports in the world, Chinese airports filling the seven other top positions in 2020. Traffic at Atlanta —which had been the world leader for passenger traffic since 2000—fell -61.2% in 2020, causing it to cede the top spot to Guangzhou as the world’s busiest airport for passengers. Dallas/Fort Worth, the world’s tenth-busiest airport in 2019, moved up to fourth-busiest in 2020.

The report details the impact of the pandemic on the airport market in 2020 and into 2021

Before the pandemic, four of the ten busiest airports in Asia Pacific were Chinese airports. As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and then the rapid recovery of its domestic passenger market, seven airports in China are now in the top ten, six of them new to the list.

Many Asia Pacific international hubs suffered major losses due to their dependence on international passenger traffic and did not make the top 10 in 2020, noted ACI. These include Beijing, the busiest airport in 2019, and Tokyo, the second busiest airport in 2019.

According to the report, the COVID-19 outbreak reduced the number of passengers at the world’s airports by more than 5.6 billion in 2020 and is forecast to remove an additional 4.6 billion passengers by the end of 2021, compared to 2019 volumes. Global passenger traffic in 2021 is expected to reach only half of what it was in 2019, totalling only 4.6 billion of the 9.2 billion passengers served two years ago.

The world’s airports also saw a sharp reduction in global aircraft movements in 2020, decreasing by -39.5% to reach only 62 million.

Due to COVID-19 related travel restrictions worldwide, domestic passenger traffic continues its trend from 2020 into 2021 of recovering faster than the international market—especially in China and in the US, the latter the world’s largest domestic market. Globally, domestic traffic will continue to increase in 2021 to reach more than 3.1 billion passengers by the end of the year, a level corresponding to 58.5% of that in 2019.

“The impact of COVID-19 has completely altered the airport sector as seen in the rankings,” ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira said. “The 2021 World Airport Traffic Report provides in-depth analyses into the impact of the pandemic on airport passenger, movement, and cargo traffic from a global and regional perspective—enabling airport stakeholders to make data-driven decisions as airports and the aviation sector work towards a sustained long-term recovery.

“The economic value driven by airports cannot be understated when it comes to facilitating business and leisure travel, trade, and the subsequent GDP, jobs, taxes, and associated social benefits. Air traffic is the lifeblood of the airport business, highlighting the necessity of government action to promote safe travel—including a coordinated and risk-based approach to testing and vaccination—rather than enforcing full-scale restrictions and blanket measures.”

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