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Heathrow drops to sixth in list of world’s busiest airports

Heathrow Airport has fallen three places to sixth in the Airports Council Association’s preliminary world airport rankings, released today.

The figures, which are based on 1,144 airports worldwide, mark the first time that the airport has fallen out of the top 5 in almost 15 years after it was leapfrogged by Dubai, Chicago O’Hare and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

According to the statistics, Heathrow saw 74.98m passengers pass through its doors, a 2.2% increase on the previous year, which still fell short of the 78m passengers who travelled through Dubai, 76.9m passengers at Chicago, and 75.3m in Tokyo.

Atlanta-Hartsfield-Jackson Airport topped the rankings, breaking the 100m passengers mark for the second year running as it capitalises on its favourable location within two hours flight time of 80% of the US population.

Despite the fall, Heathrow still performed strongly on the international passengers front, coming second only to Dubai (77m), with 69m international passenger journeys through the UK’s biggest airport, underlining its important role as an international hub.

Commenting on the preliminary figures, Angela Gittens, Director General at ACI World, said: “It’s impressive to witness the dynamic character of the aviation industry and its evolution over time.

“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.”

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