Orlando International Airport Moves Up World’s Busiest Airports List
Airports Council International (ACI) released its preliminary passenger statistics for 2020 and Orlando International Airport (MCO) improved its ranking in both the nation and the world. With 21,617,803 passengers, MCO ranks 26th among the world’s busiest airports and eighth in the United States. That’s an improvement over 2019 when MCO ranked 31st in the world and 10th in the U.S.
Orlando International remains the busiest airport in Florida and surpassed historically busier domestic airports like JFK and San Francisco and world hubs like Frankfurt, Germany; Madrid, Spain; and Amsterdam, Netherlands.
ACI’s annual top 50 world rankings showed every airport but one suffering significant double-digit declines in passenger traffic due to the COVID pandemic. The busiest airport in the world was Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in China, displacing Atlanta-Hartsfield for the first time in 22 years. Guangzhou hosted 43.8 million passengers in 2020, which was 41 percent less than the prior year. Seven of the top ten busiest airports in 2020 were in China.
Among the world’s top 50, the airport suffering the largest drop in passenger traffic was Suvarnabhumi in Thailand at 74.5 percent with the least being China’s Chongqing Airport at 22 percent. Orlando International experienced a 57.7 percent decrease in traffic.
Following strong passenger activity during the Spring Break and Easter holiday season, MCO is looking forward to increasing traffic in the upcoming summer travel season.