The world's busiest airports -- and how far they've fallen

The final figures are in for air passenger traffic in 2019 at the world's busiest airports. Unfortunately, the gutting of global air transportation by the coronavirus pandemic means that traffic levels are unlikely to rise to those levels again until 2024, according to Airports Council International, the airport trade association that compiles the data. The 2019 list of the world's busiest airports, released by ACI on Thursday, showed a 3.5% increase in passenger numbers -- coming in at more than 9.1b -- compared with 2018. For the first time, the report looks ahead at the drastic declines that came in the first half of 2020 as Covid-19 outbreaks decimated passenger traffic. Passenger numbers decreased by 58.4% worldwide in the first half of 2020, compared with the same period in 2019, with international passenger traffic hit the hardest, with a 64.5% drop. Atlanta and Beijing airports held the top two spots in 2019, with more than 110m and 100m passengers, respectively. But those airports saw passenger traffic drops of 56.6% and 73.6% in H1 2020. LAX moved up one spot in 2019 to become the third busiest airport for passenger traffic, with more than 88m passengers in 2019. Passenger traffic there dropped 58.9% in H1 2020. The airport industry is anticipating a 60% reduction in revenues compared to previous projections, according to ACI. The organization and its industry partners see reducing travel restrictions and quarantine requirements and a global approach to testing for the virus as keys to recovery. "We are positive about the future, but we need consistency and collaboration across the globe on key issues like testing," said ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira. "The industry is united in the view that widespread testing of passengers before travel, as an alternative to quarantine restrictions, will be a crucial way to foster public confidence in air travel and must be introduced."<br/>