World's Busiest Airport: Atlanta Tops the List Again

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International was once again the world's busiest terminal, as more than 100 million passengers traveling through in 2015, most in airport history.

New figures released by Airport Councils International show that Atlanta saw a 5.5 percent growth in passengers from 2014.

Beijing's Capital International Airport was No. 2, serving almost 90 million passengers. Rounding out the top five were Dubai International, Chicago O'Hare, and Tokyo Haneda.

Here's the rest of the top 10:

• London Heathrow
• Los Angeles International
• Hong Kong International
• Charles de Gaulle International, Paris
• Dallas Fort Worth

The organization says Atlanta owes much of its growth to Delta Air Lines, which has experienced growth in domestic markets. Beijing's growth slowed last year, keeping it in second place behind Atlanta.

Atlanta's airport is within a two-hour flight of 80 percent of the U.S. population.

Moving from the sixth busiest airport in 2014 to the third position in 2015 is Dubai, which is the world’s busiest in terms of international passengers ahead of London-Heathrow.

Chicago O’Hare moved up to become the fourth-ranked airport in 2015 from seventh position in 2014, with growth last year of 9.8%. After years of congestion, the airport is reaping the benefits of runway expansions and other capacity developments.

The world’s largest air cargo hub continues to be Hong Kong.

“It’s impressive to witness the dynamic character of the aviation industry and its evolution over time,” said Angela Gittens, director general of ACI World. “In certain markets, we see both airlines and airport operators expanding and optimizing their capacity in order to accommodate the growing demand for air transport. Thus, even in the most mature markets such as the United States and parts of Western Europe, several of the major hubs experienced year-over-year growth rates in passenger traffic that were well above the historical growth levels for these regions.

The new figures are based on reports from 1,144 airports worldwide.