World’s Top 10 Cargo Airports Ranked
According to the latest news, Airports Council International (ACI) officially announced yesterday the top ten busiest airports in the world in 2022, ranking the top ten airports in terms of passenger traffic, cargo volume, and aircraft movements. Ranked by cargo volume, Hong Kong International Airport (HKG, 4.2 million metric tons, -16.4%) topped the list for two consecutive years, followed by Memphis International Airport (MEM, 4 million metric tons, -9.8%), the hub of FedEx, in Alaska Anchorage International Airport (ANC, 3.5 million tonnes, -4.3%) rose to third place. Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG, 3.1 million metric tons, -21.7%) dropped one spot from 2021 to rank fourth, and UPS’s hub Louisville International Airport ranked fifth with 3.07 million metric tons, the only one in the top ten Airports reporting annual growth (+0.5%).
The final ranking of the world’s top ten cargo airports is as follows, 1-10 are: Hong Kong International Airport, Memphis International Airport, Anchorage International Airport, Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Louisville International Airport, Incheon International Airport, Taipei International Airport, Miami International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, and Tokyo International Airport. In 2022, air cargo volumes will decline overall by 6.7% year-on-year in 2021 and -1.7% compared to 2019, to nearly 117 million metric tons. The top 10 airports in terms of air cargo volume above account for about 27% (30.8 million metric tons) of global cargo volume in 2022. The top 10 airports will decline by 9.9% year-on-year in 2022, but maintain a growth rate of 4.1% compared to 2019. The decline was attributed to ongoing geopolitical tensions and disruptions to global trade and supply chains.
With the recovery of international travel, global passenger traffic will approach 7 billion in 2022, an increase of 53.5% from 2021 and a recovery of 73.8% from 2019. The top 10 airports by passenger volume accounted for 10% of global passenger traffic, an increase of 51.7% compared to 2021 and a recovery of 85.9% compared to 2019 results. Starting in 2021, Atlantic airports (ATL, 93.7 million passengers, +23.8%) tops the 2022 rankings, followed by Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW, 73.4 million passengers, +17.5%), Denver (DEN, 69.3 million, +17.8%) and Chicago O’Hare (ORD, 68.3 million, +26.5%). Five of the top 10 airports in the world are in the United States. They all have a significant share of domestic passenger traffic (between 75% and 95% domestic passenger traffic).
Returning top airports also included Dubai (DXB, 66.1 million passengers, +127%) at No. 5, Istanbul (IST, 64.3 million passengers, +73.8%) at No. 7, followed by London Heathrow Airports, Delhi and Paris-Charles de Gaulle is ranked 8th, 9th and 10th respectively. The biggest gainer in the top 10 was London Heathrow Airport (LHR). The airport’s ranking rose from 54th to 7th as the border reopens in March 2022 after being closed for two years. Global aircraft movements will approach 89 million in 2022, a 20.4% increase over 2021. This represents an 82.5% recovery from 2019 when Covid-19 began. The top 10 airports by aircraft movements accounted for almost 7% of global traffic (5.7 million movements), an increase of 11.4% compared to the 2021 result.
Atlanta International Airport ATL topped the list with 724,000 movements (up 2.3% from 2021) but was still below its 2019 figure of 904,000 movements (-19.9%). Chicago International Airport ORD (712,000, +4%) took second place after leading ATL in 2019 and 2018, followed by Dallas State DFW (657,000, +0.7%).
