Delhi's IGI airport emerges as world's 10th busiest airport: Report

The Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, one of the best airports in India and South Asia, has been ranked as the world’s 10th busiest airport in October this year. The airport has improved its ranking from the 14th place that it had held before the pandemic, according to aviation analytics firm OAG.

The report said Delhi airport has improved its position from 14th place in October 2019, which was the pre-pandemic time. In October 2022, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was the busiest in the world. The OAG rankings are based on scheduled airline capacity in the current month and this is compared to the equivalent month in 2019, pre-pandemic.

The world’s top 10 busiest airports list is prepared using total capacity, both domestic and international. Dubai and Tokyo Haneda airports hold the 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively in this OAG ranking.

“When compared to October 2019, 6 of the Top 10 this month were also among the world’s Top 10 busiest airports then; airports which have seen their rankings rise, bringing them into the Top 10 now, are Dallas/Fort Worth (from 12th to 4th), Denver (from 20th to 5th), Istanbul (from 13th to 8th), and Delhi (from 14th to 10th),” OAG said in the report on its website.

For the Delhi airport, also known as the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), the number of seats was 34,13,855, as per OAG.

Also read: Delhi airport 2nd busiest in March, jumps 21 places to displace Dubai

The Indian aviation sector is recovering after being significantly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Scheduled international flight services were suspended for more than two years from March 2020 in India.

At the 6th place is London Heathrow Airport, followed by Chicago O’Hare International Airport at the 7th spot and Los Angeles International Airport is at the 9th position, the OAG report said.

According to the report, Dubai is the busiest international airport, followed by London Heathrow Airport and Amsterdam airport at the 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively.
There is no Indian airport in the top 10 list of busiest international airports.

Top 10 busiest international routes

In another report, OAG said Mumbai to Dubai and Delhi to Dubai were among the top 10 busiest international routes. The busiest airline routes are those with the largest volume of scheduled seats during the period from October 2021 to September 2022.

Also read: Delhi’s IGI airport best in India and South Asia, 37th among worlds top 50

“Based on passenger booking data for the period August 2021 – July 2022, eight of the top 10 largest unserved routes start or end in North America. New York features in three of the routes with Quito – New York (UIO-JFK) the largest market, with more than enough passengers to potentially sustain a direct service,” the report said.

Further, OAG noted that the other New York routes include India’s largest city, Mumbai (BOM-JFK) with nearly 82,000 passengers in a 12-month period currently travelling indirectly between these two cities.