The world’s fastest growing airports this quarter
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With the final quarter of 2023 now underway, it’s as good a time as ever to look at which airports around the world are expanding fastest. Comparing this year with last year, East Asia’s airports dominate the rankings. That’s because this time last year, many markets in the region were still heavily restricted by efforts to contain the Covid pandemic, or just starting to open up.
Almost all of the world’s top 100 airports will in fact be busier this Q4 than last.
You can see below which of these Asian airports are up the most. In compiling our list, we looked at the 100 busiest airports by seats worldwide and you can view the full top 100 by filling out the form below. Almost all of the world’s top 100 airports will in fact be busier this Q4 than last.
There are just a few exceptions, including Mexico City, where the government is pushing some capacity to an alternative airport. Another airport that will be down in capacity this quarter is Oslo, reflecting Norwegian’s strategy of removing more offpeak capacity.
Because the y/y comparisons are so influenced by Asia’s recent reopening, it’s still interesting to look at how airport capacity has evolved since before the pandemic. Still looking at just the 100 busiest airports, Cancun is the fastest growth airport in the world since Q4, 2019 (note that we’re excluding the new airports in Beijing in Chengdu which weren’t yet fully opened four years ago). Not shown here are the many airports still smaller than they were pre-Covid. They include some with double-digit seat declines like Moscow’s two main airports, as well as Hong Kong in Asia and Munich in Europe. Major U.S. airports with double-digit declines include Chicago O’Hare, Philadelphia, Detroit, and San Francisco.
NEXT ON THE FLY: Visualizing the Growth of India’s Domestic Airline Market
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