Could Atlanta's airport lose "world's busiest" status? (Jackson: 2015, statistics)

[WilliamM]

Though it's apparently been predicted before, it looks like the new traffic numbers are giving rise to new speculation. Info here (though poor on numbers):

Report: O’Hare Beats Busiest U.S. Airports In Traffic Growth « CBS Chicago – Breaking News, Sports, Weather, Traffic, and the Best of Chicago

A few months old, but this link provides more information. It may be that both Hartsfield-Jackson and O'Hare will eventually be overtaken by Beijing anyway.

Beijing on Track to Be World

[lookup138]

Originally Posted by WilliamM

Though it's apparently been predicted before, it looks like the new traffic numbers are giving rise to new speculation. Info here (though poor on numbers):

Report: O’Hare Beats Busiest U.S. Airports In Traffic Growth « CBS Chicago – Breaking News, Sports, Weather, Traffic, and the Best of Chicago

A few months old, but this link provides more information. It may be that both Hartsfield-Jackson and O'Hare will eventually be overtaken by Beijing anyway.

Beijing on Track to Be World

The article is too short and lacks hard numbers and comparison data. It failed to provide sufficient statistics. For instance, which of the 10 busiest airports? Is growth being analyzed based upon yearly or quarterly review?
Just not enough info to make a conclusion IMO.

[waronxmas]

Not at all likely.

The full 2010 numbers haven't been released, but from January to September these were the top 5:

1. Atlanta - 67 075 694
2. Beijing - 55 286 054
3. Chicago - 50,253,644
4. London - 49 717 240
5. Tokyo - 47,634,644

And those are the numbers before Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Yeah, they are going to need a little more than 6.5% growth in traffic...

[cwkimbro]

Chicago fell way behind Atlanta and took bigger hits in air traffic decreases, so even if they grow faster they have a long way to catch up.

Ultimately, the only way for ORD to pass ATL is to do a rather expensive expansion project to increase physical capacity. The FAA limited how many tickets the airlines could sell after it was discovered the airlines were purposely overbooking flights the airlines weren't sure they could fly in and out of O'hare, because it was running at capacity.

[lookup138]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

Not at all likely.

The full 2010 numbers haven't been released, but from January to September these were the top 5:

1. Atlanta - 67 075 694
2. Beijing - 55 286 054
3. Chicago - 50,253,644
4. London - 49 717 240
5. Tokyo - 47,634,644

And those are the numbers before Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Yeah, they are going to need a little more than 6.5% growth in traffic...

Yeah the news piece is a little "sketchy" anyhow. I looked it up online at the Airport Council International's YTD summary and the above numbers are right on target. Although Chicago is ONE of the busiest airports, fortunately it does not generate more business than Atlanta.

[WilliamM]

Originally Posted by lookup138

Yeah the news piece is a little "sketchy" anyhow. I looked it up online at the Airport Council International's YTD summary and the above numbers are right on target. Although Chicago is ONE of the busiest airports, fortunately it does not generate more business than Atlanta.

True. I wonder what such a loss - were it to come to pass - would to do Atlanta's already bruised post-crash ego. As for seeing US airports passed in traffic by Asian ones at some point, that almost seems a foregone conclusion. After all, we've seen it happen with skyscrapers already.

[ecuresident]

Are Chicago's numbers just from ORD or both from ORD and midway? If they are not from both than Atl doesnt even compare.

[WilliamM]

Originally Posted by ecuresident

Are Chicago's numbers just from ORD or both from ORD and midway? If they are not from both than Atl doesnt even compare.

No, these are definitely just for O'Hare. As far as I know multiple airports are never combined for purposes of such traffic comparisons.

[testa50]

Atlanta can and it will lose the 'world's busiest' status, eventually. It's a certainty, barring something like WWIII or $15/gal gas. It will probably happen around 2015 or so.

Beijing's traffic has well over doubled this past decade. Dubai will probably overtake us soon too. Among many other reasons, our visa regulations aren't super conducive to large amounts of international layovers.

No American airport will ever reclaim the title again, in all likelihood.

[Adric]

Of course it's going to lose that title at some point. We need to stop being so concerned with it. World's busiest might sound like an honor to us but to the rest of the country, it's an inconvenience for them trying to get to their destination. I don't have a single friend who looks forward to layovers in Atlanta.