With 37.14 million passenger traffic, Delhi airport emerges 13th busiest globally in 2021

Delhi Airport bagged the 13th spot on the list of the world’s busiest airports for the full year 2021, published by Airports Council International (ACI) World. Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) accommodated 37.14 million passengers in 2021, an increase of 30.3% from 2020 when passenger traffic at the airport dropped to 28.5 million.

Passenger traffic across the world’s airports increased to 4.6 billion in 2021, up by 28.3% from 2020 levels. The top 20 airports, representing 19% of global traffic (863 million passengers), experienced a gain of 42.9% from 2020 or a drop of 31.9% vis-à-vis their 2019 results (1.27 billion passengers in 2019).

With 75.7 million passengers, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is back on the top of the 2021 rankings followed by Dallas Forth Worth and Denver. From the top 20 rankings, almost all airports have significant domestic traffic representing 65% to 100% of their total passengers. The only exception is Istanbul International Airport (IST) with a larger international traffic share (72% of passenger traffic).

ACI published its World Airport Traffic Dataset on Monday, revealing the magnitude of the aviation industry’s recovery and confirming global air traffic rankings for the full year 2021.

“2021 represents the beginning of the aviation industry’s recovery. While some of the perennial busiest airport leaders have re-joined upper ranks, other regions struggle to recover leading to new entrants in the top 20. With many countries taking steps towards the return of certain normality, lifting almost all the health measures and travel restrictions as supported by science, we welcome the continuation of air travel demand’s recovery in 2022, despite certain headwinds,” said Luis Felipe de Oliveira, World Director General, ACI.

The World Airport Traffic Dataset is an airport statistics dataset featuring airport traffic for over 2,600 airports in more than 180 countries and territories. It provides a view of air transport demand across the world’s airports in three areas: passengers (international and domestic), air cargo (freight and mail) and aircraft movements (air transport movements and general aviation).