Dubai Overtakes Atlanta to Become the World’s Busiest Airport
Based on departing seats for sale, Dubai is the busiest airport in the world in Q1 2025
by Lauren Smith
January 14, 2025

Photo: Courtesy of Dubai International Airport
With 15.1 million departing seats available in the first quarter of 2025, Dubai International Airport (DXB) has unseated Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) as the world’s busiest, according to new data from aviation analytics company Cirium.
However, DXB’s time at the top will be short, as ATL is poised to reclaim the title in the second quarter.
Rank | Airport | Code | Passengers (millions) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Dubai | DXB | 15.1 |
2 | Atlanta | ATL | 14.8 |
3 | Tokyo Haneda | HND | 13.6 |
4 | London Heathrow | LHR | 12.7 |
5 | Shanghai Pudong | PVG | 12.4 |
6 | Dallas/Fort Worth | DFW | 12.2 |
7 | Guangzhou | CAN | 12.1 |
8 | Istanbul | IST | 11.8 |
9 | Delhi | DEL | 11.7 |
10 | Denver | DEN | 11.4 |
Cirium bases the claim on the total number of seats available on flights departing from the airport. Dubai offers 15.1 million departing seats between January and March, compared to Atlanta’s 14.8 million seats.
Dubai and Atlanta were joined in the top five busiest airports by departing seats by Tokyo-Haneda (HND), London-Heathrow (LHR), and Shanghai-Pudong (PVG).
Drivers of Dubai’s Growth
Dubai only has the 14th-highest number of flights this quarter. However, as an exclusively international airport, its total seat capacity is boosted by the number of wide-body jets in its airfield.
The airport’s main airline, Emirates, operates exclusively twin-aisle aircraft. That includes 116 Airbus A380s, the world’s biggest passenger airplane, configured by Emirates to seat up to 517 passengers on two decks.
Seats vs. Passengers
With the help of those massive jets, Dubai averages the highest number of seats per flight of any airport: 278/flight. That’s 20 more average seats per flight than second-place Hamad International Airport (DOH) in Doha, home of Qatar Airways, another operator of the A380.

Photo: Dubai International Airport, Emirates Airbus A380 / Courtesy of Emirates
Dubai has also seen a two-percent increase in flights from the winter of 2024, including the addition of 22 destinations. The new routes include the relaunched Emirates flights to Edinburgh, Scotland (EDI), and its new one-stop service to Bogotá (BOG) via Miami (MIA), which is its longest passenger service.
Additionally, Dubai has seen impressive growth in the post-pandemic era. 13.2 percent more flights will depart the airport this quarter than in Q1 of 2019, with 5.4 percent more seats.

Photo: Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport. Courtesy of Skyler Smith / Unsplash
In contrast, Atlanta is still operating below its pre-pandemic capacity. 10.3 percent fewer flights will take off from Atlanta between now and March, although disproportionate cuts on regional routes and the use of larger aircraft means seats are down just 1.3 percent.
Seasonal Activity Trends
However, as the weather heats up in the Middle East this spring and summer, departures from Dubai will plateau, just as peak travel season in the United States boosts departures from Atlanta.

Hartsfield- Jackson Atlanta International Airport / Photo: Courtesy of PANTHER MEDIA GMBH/Alamy Stock Photo
By the third quarter of 2025, Atlanta will offer 13.3 percent more seats than it did this winter. In contrast, departures rise by just 2.6 percent from Dubai during the summer.
This pattern elevated Dubai to the world’s busiest airline for the first quarter of 2024 before it was surpassed by Atlanta for the rest of the year.
Measuring “Busiest” Airports
Of course, the number of departing seats for sale isn’t the only measure of an airport’s busyness. Atlanta is still ahead for the total number of passengers: 104.6 million in 2023, the latest year for which data is available, compared to 87 million for Dubai, according to the Airports Council International (ACI).
With all of Dubai’s 87 million travelers boarding international flights, it ranks as the number 1 airport for international passengers, a list in which Atlanta doesn’t rank.

Photo: Courtesy of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Meanwhile, air traffic controllers would define the world’s busiest airport by the number of aircraft movements (takeoffs or landings). Again, Atlanta is in first place, with 775,818 aircraft movements in 2023, according to the most recent data available from the ACI.
Dubai doesn’t even rank in the top 10 for aircraft movements.
Finally, logistics professionals might define the world’s busiest airport as the hub for processing the greatest amount of cargo. That’s Hong Kong International Airport (HKG), with 4.3 million metric tons (4.8 million U.S. tons) of cargo in 2023.