Newly released figures have revealed a change at the top of the US flight operations league. Chicago/O’Hare was the busiest airport in the United States in 2018, pipping Atlanta/Hartsfield-Jackson to the coveted title for the first time in four years.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) data shows O’Hare had 903,747 arrivals and departures during 2018 – a year-on-year increase of approximately 4%. Atlanta was in second place, recording 895,502 arrivals and departures – a rise of 1.8% on 2017.
Concourse B at Chicago/O’Hare (Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Dllu)
Alongside commercial services, the FAA includes general aviation, military and air taxi operations as part of the totals. Los Angeles (707,833), Dallas/Fort Worth (667,213) and Denver (603,403) completed the top five. The highest ranked New York-area airport was JFK in tenth place with 461,054 movements, one place ahead of New Jersey rival Newark Liberty with 452,021 arrivals and departures.
While the figures show that the Windy City beat the Georgia hub in the overall number of flights, it is likely that Atlanta will retain the title of America’s busiest airport by total passengers when separate data is released later this year.
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