KUALA LUMPUR - Asian airports drove the largest changes in ACI World’s final 2025 passenger rankings, released in Montreal on July 15.

The 2026 World Airport Traffic Dataset covers passenger traffic, cargo volumes and aircraft movements at 2,817 airports in more than 180 countries and territories. Global passenger traffic reached 9.8 billion in 2025, increasing 3.7% from 2024 and 6.5% from 2019. The 20 busiest airports handled 1.59 billion passengers, equal to 16% of worldwide traffic.

Kuala Lumpur International Airport recorded the largest advance among the top 20, moving six places from 26th in 2024 to 20th in 2025. 

The airport handled 63,409,501 passengers, an 11% annual increase. Domestic traffic rose 17%, and international demand increased 8.7%. ACI also cited added capacity and stronger connections with China and other markets before Visit Malaysia 2026.

Shanghai Pudong International Airport made the second-largest jump, moving from 10th to fifth with 84,994,548 passengers. Traffic increased 10.7% after the recovery of international travel, the easing of visa policies and the expansion of global connections. Tokyo Haneda rose from fourth to third with 91,679,814 passengers, up 6.7%.

ACI World Director General Justin Erbacci said, “Global air travel is approaching a historic milestone, but record demand is also exposing growing pressures on capacity.” He said airport planning and investment decisions would determine whether the industry could accommodate future passenger demand.

Nine airports in East, South and Southeast Asia appeared in the global top 20. Guangzhou Baiyun ranked ninth with 83,582,952 passengers after falling as low as 57th in 2022. New Delhi placed 11th, followed by Incheon in 12th, Beijing Capital in 15th and Singapore Changi in 16th. Shenzhen entered the top 20 at 19th with 66,485,213 passengers.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta remained the world’s busiest passenger airport with 106,302,208 passengers despite a 1.6% decline. Dubai retained second place with 95,192,160 passengers. Tokyo Haneda’s third-place total left it about 3.5 million passengers behind Dubai and less than 15 million behind Atlanta.