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The majority of international airports carry out a large number of flights. In this article you will discover about the busiest airports in the world, the ones that handle the largest number of flights. From the very beginning it is worth mentioning that the busiest airports are those that manage the maximum quantity of traffic of passengers and cargo. The Airports Council International (ACI) gives a specific definition of airport traffic, classifying it according to three criteria:

 - Passenger Traffic: the overall number of passengers that board and de-board a plane, meaning the number of passengers in transit counted one time.

 - Cargo Traffic: the overall loaded and unloaded cargo and mail counted in metric tons.

- Traffic Movement: the overall count of the number of take-offs and landings registered in an airport.

All of the data about the airports presented below was registered in the period between 2008 and 2009. Below you have the ability to observe the airport figures according to specified criteria. 

Passenger Traffic

 The definition of a passenger, according to ACI, says that a passenger is an individual who arrives, departs or transits throughout the airport on a specific day. The council listed London  as the city with the busiest airspace, having 2 airports, called Heathrow and Gatwick. The two airports are regularly listed in the top 30 busiest airports. Here are the top 3 airports by passenger traffic:

1) Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport - Atlanta, Georgia, USA - 12,696,621 passengers;

2) Beijing Capital International Airport - Chaoyang, Beijing, China  - 9,927,000 passengers;

3) Tokyo International Airport - Ota, Tokyo, Japan - 9,473,232 passengers.

International Passenger Traffic
International passengers are those who come from overseas, meaning the overall count of passengers minus the count of passengers from the country of residence. Below you can see the top three busiest airports according to this criterion.

1) Heathrow Airport - London, Britain - 61,345,518 passengers;

2) Charles de Gaulle Airport - Paris, France - 55,804,279 passengers;

3) Amsterdam Airport Schiphol – Amsterdam - 47,349,319 passengers.

Cargo Traffic
Here you can observe the figures of the top three busiest airports that load and unload the most cargo; the numbers represent metric tons.

1) Memphis International Airport - Memphis, Tennessee, USA  - 3,695,561 tons;

2) Hong Kong International Airport - Lantau, Hong Kong, China - 3,365,724 tons;

3) Shanghai Pudong International Airport - Pudong, Shanghai, China - 2,598,795 tons.

Traffic Movement
Here it is worth mentioning that nine out of ten busiest airports in regard to traffic movement are located in the United States. The airport that enters the top ten, which is not from the United States is located in Paris, France and is called Charles de Gaulle Airport. It ranks 9^th. Because of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games that took place in the capital of People's Republic of China the Beijing Capital International Airport registered an increase of 7 million passengers. Generally the rankings are stable, but when such a great event like the Olympic Games takes place, the number of passengers registers a considerable boost.

1) Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport - Atlanta, Georgia, USA - 978,824 passengers;

2) O'Hare  International Airport Chicago, Illinois, USA - 881,566 passengers;

3) Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport - Dallas, Texas, USA - 656,310 passengers.