Busiest airports in the US: comparing volume, flights & airlines with overall airport size

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Written by a human· 100%

Updated:  15 September 2026

6 minutes read

WRITTEN BY

Amy Lancelotte

Senior Writer & Content Creator

REVIEWED BY

Anton Radchenko

Founder & CEO

To establish the busiest airports in the US for 2025, our team reviewed:

• Passenger numbers
• Annual aircraft movements, which translate to annual flights
• The number of airlines that use the airport
• The total land size

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta is the busiest US airport for passenger volume. A staggering 106.3 million people used the facility in 2025. But Atlanta International Airport doesn’t top the list in any of our other categories.

Let’s get into all our findings and decide once and for all which airport in the US is the busiest (and the biggest).

Key takeaways

• Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is the busiest by passenger volume: 106M in 2025.
• The biggest airport in the US by land size is Denver.
• Chicago O’Hare Airport is the busiest airport by flights (aircraft movements).
• New York’s JFK Airport accommodates the most airlines.
• The busiest airport by passengers isn’t the same as the largest airport in the US by size or the one with the most annual flights.

10 busiest airports in the US by passenger volume (2025)

*Data compiled using ACI’s North American Airport Traffic Rankings.

Based solely on the number of passengers, ATL is the busiest airport in the US. This distinction stays true for North America and beyond, as it’s the busiest airport in the world for passenger volume, period.

In 2025, ATL had over 20 million more passengers than the second-place finisher, Dallas Fort Worth, and nearly double the passenger volume of our 10th-place finisher, San Francisco. Notably, SFO ousted Charlotte Douglas Airport from the top 10 this year.

On a worldwide scale, Dubai International Airport is hot on ATL’s heels, showing increases year over year. But with 92.6 million passengers in 2025, it still has a ways to go.

The trend with Hartsfield-Jackson Airport isn’t as positive. Compared to the passenger volume in 2024, ATL’s number dropped 1.6%.

So, the answer to the question of which airport in the US is the busiest has to be Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, but it’s worth looking at the other factors, too.

When we talk about the busiest airport, passenger numbers are the clearest measure. An airport can cover more land or handle more flights without necessarily serving the most passengers. 

— Anton Radchenko, CEO of AirAdvisor.

10 busiest US airports by annual aircraft movements

An aircraft movement is a single takeoff or landing. This table shows the total aircraft movements (takeoffs and landings) at each airport for 2025.

Unlike the 2025 passenger volume table, the aircraft movements data shows mostly increases year over year. Only Las Vegas’ Harry Reid Airport, Charlotte Douglas Airport, and LAX declined in 2025 compared to 2024.

Phoenix Deer Valley Airport is new to the aircraft movements top 10 for 2025, and to make the list, the airport had the largest increase from 2024 to 2025: 13.4%.

Top 10 airports in the USA by number of airlines

Another way to compare busy airports is by the number of airlines they accommodate. Of the busiest US airports by passenger volume, we checked out how many airlines have flights to and from each.

To get this information, we reviewed each airport’s airlines page and counted the number of different carriers listed at the time of publishing:

1. John F. Kennedy International Airport (New York) — 73
2. Los Angeles International Airport — 70
3. Miami International Airport — 57
4. Chicago O’Hare International Airport — 55
5. San Francisco International Airport — 54
6. Orlando International Airport — 35
7. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport — 31
8. Harry Reid International Airport (Las Vegas) — 30
9. Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport — 28
10. Denver International Airport — 25

The biggest airports in the US by size in square miles

Now that we know that ATL is the busiest, O’Hare has the most flights (movements), and JFK serves the most airlines, let’s see how the physical size numbers stack up.

1. Denver International Airport — 52.4 square miles
2. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport — 26.9 square miles
3. Orlando International Airport — 20.8 square miles
4. Dulles International Airport (Washington, DC) — 20 square miles
5. George Bush Intercontinental Airport (Houston) — 15.6 square miles
6. Salt Lake City International Airport — 12.05 square miles
7. Chicago O’Hare International Airport — 11.9 square miles
8. San Francisco International Airport — 8.13 square miles
9. John F. Kennedy International Airport (New York) — 8.1 square miles
10. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport — 7.35 square miles

The answer to which is the biggest airport in the US is Denver, and by a long shot. In fact, the airport is almost half the size of the entire city of Atlanta (134 square miles).

Although the largest, DEN only has a single 2.6 million square foot terminal. To put that in perspective, LAX has 9 terminals, and DFW in Dallas has 5.

Notice that Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson doesn’t even rank in the top 10 in the country. The truth is, it just missed out on the 10th spot with an area of 7.34 square miles.

Are bigger and busier the same thing? Our findings

Technically, the biggest airport in the US isn’t the same as the busiest. At all. As for what’s the largest airport in the US by size, that honor goes to Denver, which, although definitely busy, is the fourth-busiest airport in the country (passenger volume). It’s also the second-largest airport in the world.

Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport is hands down the busiest for passenger traffic, but Chicago O’Hare dominates for aircraft movements. New York’s JFK Airport accommodates the largest variety of airlines.

So, we can safely say that an airport’s size doesn’t necessarily determine how busy it is. Bigger does not always mean busier.

As a traveler, be prepared to deal with crowds pretty much any time of year at ATL, and getting around the biggest airport in the US, DEN, will require some walking!

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Author:

Amy Lancelotte

Job/Position: Senior Writer & Content Creator

Amy Lancelotte is a Senior Content Writer and editorial contributor at AirAdvisor with more than seven years of experience producing research-driven articles for global audiences. Her work focuses on travel, aviation, and air passenger rights, with an emphasis on factual accuracy, verified data, and clear, reader-first explanations.

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