30 Busiest Airports in the World by Flights Per Day

Ramish Cheema
9 min read

In this piece, we will take a look at the 30 busiest airports in the world by flights per day. For more cities, head on over to 5 Busiest Airports in the World by Flights Per Day.

Modern day air travel is nothing short of a miracle. Every day, thousands of massive machines weighing hundreds of tons take to the skies and ferry people thousands of kilometers all over the world. Human flight, or commercial flight at the scale that we see it today, is a relatively new phenomenon and one that was not widely available even a hundred years ago. As is the case with several crucial technologies, such as the Internet, commercial aviation also owes its existence to a large extent to military development.

The Second World War was the real stimulant for commercial aviation. This is due to the fact that not only did the jet engine made it to fighter aircraft during the tail end of the conflict, but the war also provided companies with the experience to develop huge metallic beats for bombing and ferrying cargo and troops. This experience was transferred to the commercial sector, and several aircraft used during the war such as the Douglas DC-3 were converted for civilian use.

At the same time, airplanes are only one half of the global aviation industry. The other half is airports. After all, airplanes require a controlled environment suitable to handle their stress for take off and landing, and specialized facilities capable of handling thousands of passengers smoothly and directing them to the right aircraft are needed to ensure that there are no breakdowns. Therefore, it's no surprise that the global aircraft industry is worth quite a bit. In fact, according to research from Allied Markets Research, the global airport ground handling market was worth a sizeable $31.8 billion in 2022. From then until 2032, the market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.2% to sit at an estimated $76.1 billion by the end of. the forecast period. The industry is made up of a variety of sectors such as cargo handling, passenger handling, and ramp handling. This growth will be influenced by a variety of factors such as more airports being built and a growth in air passenger transport and rising living standards requiring more airports to be built.

This growth will prove to be a respite for some of the largest airport management companies in the world such as Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAWW), Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico (NYSE:PAC), and Grupo Aeroportuario dl Srst SAB CV (NYSE:ASR) (for more airport stocks you can check out 12 Best Airport Stocks To Buy) since the industry was dealt a massive blow by the coronavirus pandemic. According to data from Airports Council International, the pandemic was almost a death knell for the industry as it removed an eye popping 4.6 billion passengers from the market in 2021 as compared to 2019. This reduced the traffic by 50.4%, and looking into the future, traffic is expected to grow to 2019 levels only by the end of 2024. Regionally speaking, the North American market is expected to undergo a faster recovery and touch pre-coronavirus levels by this year, while all other regions should follow a 2024 timeline.

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