World's busiest airports

 

By passenger traffic ,these are measured by total passengers,defined as passengers boarded plus
passengers disembarked plus direct-transit passengers. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta has been the world's busiest airport every year since 2000.Hartsfield–Jackson is fully equiped to face such an amount of people.It even has it's own undeground train transportation and moving walkways which are the world's busiest automated system,with over 64 million riders in 2002.With all airports combined London has the world's busiest city airport system by passenger count.
Here are some statistics:

1.Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport
IATA:ATL ICAO:KATL
This airport is well ahead amongst each others with a 92,365,860 passenger flow (2011).In a 2012 partial year statistic following the period from May to June there where  38,206,174 passengers.

As by the May month of this year Atlanta International Airport is followed by :

2.       Beijing Capital International Airport      PEK/ZBAA       32,604,281
3. London Heathrow Airport                        LHR/EGLL       27,368,606
4. O'Hare International Airport                     ORD/KORD    26,650,021
5. Tokyo International Airport                      HND/RJTT       26,221,887
6. Los Angeles International Airport              LAX/KLAX      25,196,556
7. Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport                 CDG/LFPG       24,131,196
8. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport     DFW/KDFW   23,432,326
9. Suvarnabhumi Airport                               BKK/VTBS      23,381,064
10. Dubai International Airport                     DXB/OMDB    23,216,893

World's busiest airports by aircraft movements

are measured by total movements of aircrafts.
One total movement is a landing or takeoff of an aircraft.2011 Preliminary full-year figure shows that Atlanta Airport (KATL) has not only the busiest airport by passenger flow ,but far ahead amongst other airports by aircraft movements.The airport has 5 concrete runways from 2700 up to 3700 meters long and its currently widened its taxiways to acomodate the Airbus A380. Also building of new taxiways which shorten taxiing from runways to the terminal are planning to save up to $30 million in fuel each year.Here is the top 10 airports by movements by a 2010 statistic.


1. Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport   ATL/KATL         950,119
2. O'Hare International Airport                               ORD/KORD 882,617
3. Los Angeles International Airport                        LAX/KLAX   666,938
4. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport                DFW/KDFW 652,261
5. Denver International Airport                               DEN/KDEN       630,063
6. George Bush Intercontinental Airport                  IAH/KIAH         531,347
7. Charlotte/Douglas International Airport                CLT/KCLT    529,101
8. Beijing Capital International Airport                    PEK/ZBAA         517,584
9. McCarran International Airport                          LAS/KLAS         505,591
10. Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport                       CDG/LFPG         499,997

Not very far behind are Frankfurt(11) and Heathrow(13) airport.

Cargo traffic

is measured by loaded and unloaded freight and mail in metric tonnes.

1. Hong Kong International Airport                   HKG/VHHH   4,168,394
2. Memphis International Airport Memphis     MEM/KMEM  3,916,937
3. Shanghai Pudong International Airport PVG/ZSPD      3,227,914
4. Incheon International Airport Incheon             ICN/RKSI       2,684,500
5. Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport  ANC/PANC 2,578,396
6. Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport                     CDG/LFPG 2,399,067
7. Frankfurt Airport                                           FRA/EDDF     2,275,106
8. Dubai International Airport                             DXB/OMDB 2,270,498
9. Narita International Airport                             NRT/RJAA 2,167,843
10. Louisville International Airport                      SDF/KSDF 2,166,226


Here are some of the claims are based on traffic classification:

London Heathrow Airport - Largest number of international passengers annually (2004–present) Frankfurt International Airport - Most international destinations served.

Historical claims
Chicago Midway International Airport, United States
In the late 1940s, Chicago Midway was the busiest airport in the United States by total aircraft operations – i.e., including every training aircraft practising take-offs and landings. New York LaGuardia had the most airline operations and passengers until the early 1950s, when Chicago became the busiest airport in the United States by any criterion. Before World War II,Chicago Midway was the origin or destination of one in four U.S. airline flights,although a 1939 Official Aviation Guide shows more airline flights scheduled at Newark than at Chicago.

Non-standard claims
Wittman Regional Airport, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States The world's busiest airport by traffic movements during the seven-day AirVenture Oshkosh event.25,000 traffic movements are handled in a week during the yearly event, and air traffic controllers are picked by a competitive selection process to handle this traffic. During the event, a banner reading "WORLD'S BUSIEST CONTROL TOWER" is hung from the control tower.

London Gatwick, 5 km (3.1 mi) north of the centre of Crawley, West Sussex, United Kingdom approximately 45.7 km (28.4 mi) south of Central London).Gatwick has the world's busiest single-use runway. It does have two runways on site but the close proximity of the two and the length and lack of guidance for the second means that only one is used.It is London's second largest international airport and
second busiest by total passenger traffic in the United Kingdom after Heathrow.

Also you would like to take a look at some biggest airlines statistic.

Biggest passenger airlines by fleet size:

Rank Airline                Fleet size
1  Delta Air Lines                       722
2 Southwest Airlines                 706
3 United Airlines                       701
4 Lufthansa Group                    636
5 American Airlines                  617
6 Air France-KLM                  586
7 China Southern Airlines         420
8 Air Canada3                         352
9 International Airlines Group   347
10 US Airways                        338

Biggest cargo airlines by fleet size:

Rank Airline         Fleet size
1 FedEx                          688
2 UPS Airlines                 214
3 DHL Aviation                 75
4 TNT Airways                 50
5 Korean Air Cargo         24
6 Cathay Pacific Cargo     24
7 China Airlines Cargo  19
8 Lufthansa Cargo             18
9 EVA Air Cargo              18
10 Cargolux                      16

By number of destinations

Rank Airline        Country Destinations
1 United Airlines             371
2 Delta Air Lines             356
3 American Airlines 260
4 Air France-KLM 230
5 Lufthansa                     217
6 US Airways                 206
7 Turkish Airlines            201
8 British Airways-Iberia 200
9 Qantas                 182
10 Air Canada                180

By scheduled passengers carried (2011)

Rank Airline
1 Delta Air Lines               163,838,348
2 United Airlines               141,799,000
3 Southwest Airlines          135,274,464
4 American Airlines           106,013,737
6 China Southern Airlines   80,674,800
7 Ryanair                           76,400,000
8 Air France-KLM             75,780,000
9 China Eastern Airlines       68,724,960
10 US Airways                    60,854,368