The Biggest Airport in the World
Taken literally as the airport which takes up the most land mass, this is the King Fahd International Airport in Damman, Saudi Arabia. It takes up some 780 square kilometers - an area larger than many cities. By comparison, London Heathrow takes up around 3,000 acres, or just 4.7 square miles.
The Busiest Airport in the World
This depends on whether you monitor aircraft movements (the numbers of take-offs and landings), or passenger numbers. An airport such as Washington National may have relatively high aircraft movements, but as the largest aircraft it handles is a Boeing 757, it handles relatively fewer annual passengers than other airports with similar movements. Movements and passenger numbers are both acceptable methods of determining the "busiest" airport, although passenger numbers is the generally quoted figure. Most Passenger numbers Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson is the busiest airport in the world, handling 76.7 million passengers in 2002.Atlanta overtook Chicago O'Hare in 1998, and is now significantly ahead. Chicago handled 66.6 million passengers in 2002.
Busiest International Airport
London Heathrow handles the most international passengers (as opposed to passengers on domestic flights, which make up the majority of traffic at US airports). On an overall scale, Heathrow ranks third behind Atlanta and Chicago.
No comments:
Post a Comment