The world’s busiest airports in 2023 have been revealed one country holding three spots in the top 15. London Heathrow was the busiest last year pulling in just over 79 million passengers, a 29pc increase on last year, while just behind it was Turkey’s Istanbul Airport, which brought in 76 million passengers during 2023 having topped the list in 2022.
The UK, Germany and Spain all have two airports in the top 10 list with Gatwick coming 9th on the list with almost 41 million passengers in 2023.
Germany’s Frankfurt am Main Airport (59 million passengers) and Munich Airport (37 million passengers) came 6th and 10th respectively.
But looking at the top 15, Spain takes the lead with Madrid’s Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (60 million passengers), Barcelona’s El Prat (50 million) and Palma de Mallorca (31 million) came in 5th, 7th and 13th.
The rest of the list is made up by Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport (29 million passengers) and the Netherlands’ Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (52 million passengers).
Just outside the top ten was Russia’s Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, which despite the ongoing war against Ukraine actually saw passenger numbers increase by 29pc to 37 million.
Manchester Airport was the UK’s third busiest airport with 28 million passengers passing through it in 2023, London Stansted came just behind it with around 100,000 less passengers.
Luton Airport beat out airports in Milan, Hamburg and Naples with 16 million passengers, while Edinburgh Airport saw 11 million people pass through it last year.
Despite its tiny size Luxembourg Airport saw more than four million passengers in 2023 proving more popular than Hannover, Newcastle and Corfu.
Serbia’s Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport saw the biggest increase in passengers last year rising by 42pc to nearly eight million.
Other airports to see a whopping increase in traffic included Tirana Airport in Albania which saw a 40pc increase, Wroclaw Airport in Poland which saw a 35pc increase and Poland’s Warsaw Chopin Airport which saw a 28pc increase.
