The World Has a New Busiest Airport
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Move Over, Atlanta
According to preliminary 2025 data from AirNav Radar, Atlanta has been dethroned as the busiest airport on the planet (at least in terms of takeoffs and landings). Chicago’s O’hare International Airport, which has long been #2, recorded an average of 2,318 daily flights compared to Atlanta’s 2,190. Atlanta still leads by passenger count, but I honestly feel like flights is more important to measure “busy-ness”.
Chicago - O’hare International Airport
O’hare International Airport is by far Chicago’s busiest airport, with about 4x as many passengers as its little brother, Midway. ORD is a major hub for both United (whose headquarters is there) and American. ORD is the most connected airport in North America - from its 8 runways, you can reach 250 cities in 63 countries. Not only is ORD a major commercial travel center, but a cargo one. It processes over two million tons of cargo annually across 17,000 cargo flights, with a total value of $200 billion (that’s like the entire GDP of Luxembourg, twice).
Why is O’Hare the Busiest?
Chicago has two huge strengths in this department. Chicago is America’s third most populous city and a major economic hub. Some of the world’s most recognizable companies, like McDonalds, Mondelez International, and Kraft-Heinz call the area home. The GDP of the Chicago metroplex is comparable to that of Taiwan.
Secondly, Chicago is highly geographically favorable. It’s in the middle of the country, making it good for both east-west traffic and north-south traffic. Chicago has long been a transit hub. Especially around the turn of the century, Chicago was definitely the rail capital of America and arguably the world. Being in the Midwest, there was a lot of space to build a gigantic airport, as it’s not hemmed in by a coastline or mountain range.
This is similar to what powered Atlanta to the top.
https://wgntv.com/news/wgn-investigates/ohare-on-track-to-reclaim-worlds-busiest-airport-title/
