The Delhi airport has been ranked the world’s 9th busiest airport in 2024, according to a report released by the Airports Council International (ACI) on Tuesday. The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) handled 77,820,834 passengers last year, moving up one spot from 10th position in 2023.

This number includes all passengers who boarded and disembarked at the airport. Passengers who were in transit were counted only once.

According to ACI, global passenger traffic hit a record high in 2024, crossing 9.4 billion travellers. This is an 8.4% rise from 2023 and 2.7% more than the pre-pandemic levels in 2019. The top 20 busiest airports together handled 1.54 billion passengers, which is 16% of the total global traffic.

Top airports in the world

The Atlanta airport in the United States topped the list with 108,067,766 passengers. It was followed by Dubai Airport with 92,331,506 passengers and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport in the US with 87,817,864 passengers in the second and third positions.

Other airports in the top 10 include

  • Japan’s Haneda Airport (4th)
  • London Heathrow in the UK (5th)
  • Denver Airport, US (6th)
  • Istanbul Airport, Turkey (7th)
  • Chicago Airport, US (8th)
  • Shanghai Pudong Airport, China (10th)

Shanghai climbed 11 spots to reach the 10th position globally.

Delhi airport’s aircraft movements

In terms of aircraft movements, the Delhi airport ranked 15th in 2024, moving up two places from 2023. The airport recorded 477,509 aircraft movements last year.

Globally, aircraft movements reached 100.6 million, a 3.9% increase from 2023 and 96.8% of 2019 levels. The top 20 airports recorded 11.08 million movements, which is 5.4% higher than the previous year.

ACI represents 830 members running 2,181 airports across 170 countries.

“The rankings reflect the scale of global aviation and the resilience of the industry that continues to grow, despite the complex global environment,” said ACI World Director General Justin Erbacci.

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