It's become a regular occurrence: Atlanta's unrivalled position as the world's busiest airport has once again been confirmed, according to the 2015 rankings published by Airports Council International (ACI). Delta's hub even consolidated its leadership, with passenger numbers up significantly (+5.51TP3Q) on the previous year. A total of 101,491,106 passengers passed through Hartsfield-Jackson airport last year. By way of comparison, Beijing airport, second in this ACI ranking, came close to the 90 million passenger mark (+4.41TP3Q). Dubai airport also made good progress, moving up from 6th to third place, with double-digit growth in traffic (+10.7%, to 78 million passengers). By contrast, and despite a slight increase in traffic, Paris-CDG fell back to ninth place. The Parisian airport was overtaken by Hong Kong and its spectacular growth (+8.2%).
In addition to this case-by-case analysis, there was a clear and widespread increase in the number of passengers (+6.4%), a rise not seen since 2010. This increase brings global traffic to 7.2 billion passengers. No fewer than 37 airports now handle more than 40 million passengers a year. There were just 16 ten years ago, as Airports Council International points out, although it remains cautious about forecasts for 2016. "There are a number of obstacles that could curb the continuing rise in demand" says Angela Gittens, Managing Director of ACI World. " This could potentially weigh on short- and medium-term growth prospects. These are linked to geopolitical unrest, terrorism and security threats in certain regions." .
