Despite a small drop in traffic, Atlanta’s airport remained the undisputed world champion in passenger volumes in 2025, even as Chicago tried to steal some of its shine.
Passengers slid 1.6 percent to 106.3 million from 108 million in the prior year, perhaps a symptom of announced cuts to Southwest‘s schedule. But Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport retained a strong lead over the second- and third-place challengers (Dubai with 95 million and Tokyo Haneda with 91 million) and remained the only airport ever to eclipse nine digits, according to Airports Council International.
That said, Atlanta was also the only airport in this year’s global top 10 that posted a smaller total this year than during its peak in 2019 (110 million), from which it has fallen 3.8 percent.
Chicago O’Hare, meanwhile, carefully touted its status as the “busiest airfield” in the world, surpassing ATL in “operations” — takeoffs and landings — for the first time since 2019. That’s despite operations at ATL growing to 805,268, an increase of 1 percent but still 100,000 fewer than its pre-pandemic high. Chicago’s operations, meanwhile, grew 10.8 percent to 860,015. See the AJC’s story on the ATL-ORD rivalry here
International passenger traffic in Atlanta, meanwhile, was also in positive territory for last year, growing by 1.6 percent to 14.9 million, a second consecutive yearly record.
Before 2024, ATL had never even hit the 13 million mark, the target cited when the airport inaugurated the Maynard H. Jackson jr. International Terminal, or Concourse F, back in 2012.
See the December 2025 and full-year figures as reported by ATL below:
ATL-ATR-2512_revF
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