Hartsfield-Jackson takes back title of world's busiest from China airport

ATLANTA - After dropping to the second spot for a single year, Atlanta's airport is once again the world's busiest airport.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was knocked off the No. 1 spot in passenger volume for 2020 by China's Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport due to a drop of passengers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The change broke Hartfield's 22-year streak of taking the title.

Monday, the trade association Airports Council International announced that the Atlanta airport has taken back its spot on the top of the list with 75.7 million passengers - an increase of 76.4% from the year before.

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While that number is a high increase, it still is 31.5% less than the total amount of passengers in 2019.

Hartsfield is followed by Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with 62.5 million passengers and Denver International Airport with 58,8 million. The former champ, Guangzhou Bai Yun International Airport, slid down to eighth place. 

ACI's director general Luis Felipe de Oliveira said the new list showed encouraging signs of recovery.

"The ACI World passenger traffic rankings tell the story of an encouraging trend of recovery, with most of the recurrent busiest airports pre-COVID-19 back at the top," ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira said. "Although we are cautious that recovery could face multiple headwinds, the momentum created by reopening plans by countries could lead to an uptick in travel in the second half of 2022.

In total, global passengers in 2020 was estimated to be around 4.5 billion.