Istanbul Airport ranked second busiest in the world last year

Türkiye's largest airport saw over 26.4M global passengers last year, up 66 percent from previous year.

Istanbul Airport ranking jumped four spots in 2021 compared to sixth in 2020.
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Istanbul Airport ranking jumped four spots in 2021 compared to sixth in 2020.

Last year only one airport had a larger international passenger volume than Türkiye's Istanbul Airport, its operator IGA has said.

Istanbul Airport, Türkiye's largest, saw more than 26.4 million international passengers in 2021 – up 66 percent from the previous year, under the shadow of Covid-19 travel restrictions – showed the data based on the Airports Council International (ACI) ranking.

This carried Istanbul Airport to second place globally in terms of passenger volume, jumping four spots from sixth place last year. 

In 2019 it ranked just 14th place.

READ MORE: Turkey’s Istanbul Airport continues to ride high in the world ranking

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Located on the European side of Istanbul, the Istanbul Airport was opened on October 29, 2018.

Dubai International Airport ranked 1st

The United Arab Emirates' Dubai International Airport came on top with 29.1 million international passengers last year, while the Netherlands' Amsterdam Airport Schiphol ranked third.

In terms of total passengers, the US' Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the state of Georgia ranked first globally with 75.7 million passengers – a 76.4 percent jump in volume from the previous year.

Eight of the 10 airports with the highest number of total passengers were in the US, according to the figures.

"The ACI World passenger traffic rankings tell the story of an encouraging trend of recovery, with most of the recurrent busiest airports pre-Covid-19 back at the top," Luis Felipe de Oliveira, the ACI world director general, said in a statement.

"Although we are cautious that recovery could face multiple headwinds, the momentum created by reopening plans by countries (from Covid-19 restrictions) could lead to an uptick in travel in the second half of 2022," he added.

READ MORE: Istanbul Airport ranks in world's top 5-star airports

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