Dubai International Airport (DXB) has officially been named as the second busiest airport in the world according to data released for 2024 – handling just over 92 million total passengers throughout the year.
According to the newly released 2025 edition of the World’s World Airport Dataset by Airports Council International (ACI), global air travel has now surpassed pre-pandemic levels. Data shows that DXB handled a total of 92.3 million passengers throughout 2024. This was a 6.1% increase over 2024 and a 7% increase on figures before the pandemic.
DXB was the only airport in the Middle East to reach the global top ten and moved above Dallas/Fort Worth Airport and Tokyo Haneda Airport for the first time. Dallas/Fort Worth handled 87.8 million passengers, while Tokyo Haneda handled 85.9 million passengers in 2024.
In first place once again was Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, which handled over 108 million total passengers as the United States main domestic network and international hub. However, DXB is rapidly closing the gap as one of the world’s top long-haul hubs connecting Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The data also shows that global airports are continuing to post strong passenger growth in 2024 and beyond. Total global passenger traffic increased to 9.4 billion people in 2024. This was an impressive increase of 8.4% over 2023 and an increase of 2.7% over the previous record of 2019.
Statistics from the ACI dataset also show that the top 20 busiest airports in the world are now responsible for just over 16% of total global air travel and passengers. This equates to around 1.54 billion total travellers.
With a 50% increase in passenger numbers, Istanbul Airport moved up from 28th place in 2023 to 7th place in 2024, according to the new statistics. London’s Heathrow Airport claimed fifth place with 83.8 million passengers served, while Doha’s Hamad International Airport saw a 14.8% yearly increase in passenger traffic, serving just over 53 million travellers.
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