With 5.28 million seats on scheduled flights in December 2024, Dubai International Airport (DXB) has become the world’s busiest airport again, pushing Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) to the second spot, with its 5.23 million scheduled seat capacity for the month. With this, the top two airports have swapped positions as compared to ranking in December 2023, says an analysis by aviation consultancy OAG.

In a press statement, OAG says that Tokyo Haneda (HND) with 4.72 million seats, London Heathrow (LHR) with 4.26 million seats and Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) with 4.24 million seats make the top 5 amongst the world’s busiest airports this month.

With 4.04 million seats, Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) has leapfrogged 5 spots to jump from 11th spot last year to 6th this year. It is followed by Denver (DEN) with 4.01 seats and Istanbul (IST) with 3.99 million seats at 7th and 8th positions. Indian capital Delhi has moved up one position from last year to stand at 9th slot with 3.96 million seats this month and rounding up the top 10 is Guangzhou Baiyun International (CAN), barely 4,000 seats behind Delhi.

OAG says that Dubai’s strong performance has also ensured that it is also the world’s busiest international airport. But the list changes dramatically besides Dubai, as London Heathrow moves up to the second spot in terms of international flights, with 3.96 million seats, followed by Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) with 3.76 million seats at the third position, Incheon Airport in Seoul (ICN) at fourth place with 3.68 million seats and bringing up the top 5 is Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) with 3.21 million seats on international flights scheduled this December.

Trailing CDG by under 3,000 seats is Istanbul (IST), while Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) is seventh with 3.20 million seats, followed by three Asian airports, Hong Kong (HKG) with 3.19 million seats, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) with 2.87 million and Doha Airport (DOH) in Qatar standing at 10th rank with 2.75 million seats.

Asia dominates top domestic & international routes

OAG says that in terms of city pairs or routes, whether domestic or international, the rankings are dominated by Asia. It says that in domestic airport pairs, Asia has nine of the top 10 spots, with Jeju-Gempu route in South Korea topping the list with 1.1 million seats, followed closely by Sapporo Chitose-Tokyo Haneda route with 1.03 million seats. The third busiest domestic route globally this month is another Japanese pair, Fukuoka-Tokyo Haneda with over 988,500 seats and Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) with 856,000 seats at the fourth spot and Jeddah-Riyadh route in Saudi Arabia standing fifth with almost 770,000 seats this month. The only domestic route that is in the top 10 busiest this month from outside of Asia is Melbourne-Sydney pair in Australia, says OAG.

In terms of the busiest international pairs, the top three positions is again an all-Asia affair with Hong Kong-Taipei topping the global listing with 625,000 seats, followed by Kuala Lumpur-Singapore route at the second spot with 467,000 seats and Incheon-Tokyo Narita at 463,000 seats taking the third position.

At fourth position with 437,000 seats is Cairo-Jeddah route, which makes Cairo the only airport outside of Asia in the 10 busiest international routes. At the fifth spot is Incheon Seoul-Osaka Kansai route with 435,000 seats, followed by Jakarta-Singapore at 405,000 seats, Dubai-Riyadh 369,000 seats at the seventh place. Bangkok-Hong Kong, Bangkok-Singapore and Tokyo Narita-Taipei rank 8th, 9th and 10th in the list, says OAG.