Departure Allowed: The Largest Airport

Аэропорты мира ежедневно встречают и провожают миллионы пассажиров. Самолет сегодня — наиболее быстрый, удобный и безопасный транспорт. Крупные города, не справляясь с растущим пассажиропотоком, расширяют действующие аэропорты или вкладываются в строительство новых.

We present a rating of the largest airports in the world in terms of area and passenger traffic. We will also tell you about the major Russian air gateways.

Worldwide rankings

Величина воздушной гавани — понятие относительное. Ряд экспертов считают, что площадь  аэропорта следует рассматривать как основной параметр, другие настаивают на величине пассажиропотока.

The number of passengers passing through a single air harbor can vary for a variety of reasons:

• seasonality;
• weather conditions;
• the political situation, etc.

That is why it is customary to estimate the value of passenger traffic for aviation for the year, calculating the average figure. It is noteworthy that developed countries have laid in the design of any international airport passenger traffic equal to tens of millions of people per year. This suggests that civil aviation will develop at an active pace.

Statistics on the capacity of air gates of the world, the area occupied, progress reports and construction of new airports are handled by Airport Council International. They chose the largest airport in the world for 2019.

By area

Airports began to appear in the twentieth century in Europe. Today they are large complexes to serve air traffic. The following facilities are located in the area:

• runways, taxiways;
• passenger terminals;
• cargo terminals;
• places for mooring and refueling of ships, and so on.

Even local airports occupy a large area. To take off and land aircraft with a wingspan of 15-24 meters requires a runway that exceeds a kilometer. Let's look at the 10 airports in the world that are the largest by area.

Title	Code	Country	City	Area, km2
King Khalid	RUH	Saudi Arabia	Riyadh	776
Denver Airport	DEN	USA	Denver	137,27
Fort Worth/Dallas	DFW	USA	Dallas	69,7
Pudong	PVG	China	Shanghai	33,5
Руасси — Шарль-де-Голль	CDG	France	Paris	32
Madrid-Barajas A. Suarez	MAD	Spain	Madrid	30
Suvarnabhumi	BKK	Thailand	Bangkok	29,8
O'Hare Airport	ORD	USA	Chicago	26
Cairo International Airport	CAI	Egypt	Cairo	25,5
Shawdue	PEK	China	Beijing	23,3

The largest air harbor in terms of area was opened in 1983. Its size is related to the fact that the airfield was the base for the emergency landing of the American space shuttle reusable. Today the project is closed.

The most important parameter for evaluating the city's air gateway is passenger traffic. Statistics are calculated annually, taking into account departures, arrivals and those who arrived in transit.

In terms of passenger traffic

Загруженность воздушной гавани — важный показатель. Сегодня 2 миллиона человек в год не считается значительным, а ведь эта цифра еще 10 лет назад казалась для работников крупных портов огромной.

Let's look at the busiest airports by region. Below are the top 10 busiest airports in the world for 2019.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta (ATL)

Year after year, the airport is the leader among the world's airports in the number of received, sent, transit passengers. Opened in 1926 in Georgia, today it has its own subway station.

The airport terminal is equipped with 196 exits, with over 104 million people passing through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta in a year, and it is by far the largest airport in the world.

Shawdue (PEK)

China's second largest air port has three runways and is located in the northeast of the capital, Beijing. The airport consists of three terminals.

Passenger traffic increased dramatically in 2008 and has now exceeded 90 million people a year.

Dubai (DXB)

The international airport is located in Dubai, opened in 1960, but upgraded in 2001. 7 years later, the capacity of the hub has increased by 10 times. It has two runways, three terminals with high service class.

In 2018, the number of passengers rose to 90 million.

Tokyo Haneda (HND)

The number of air travel in Japan is growing, and passenger traffic is also increasing. While Haneda serves mainly domestic flights, the workload could be the envy of any international port in the CIS. It has four runways.

Annual passenger traffic by early 2019 was 86 million.

Los Angeles (LAX)

Four modern runways allow the main air hub in California to serve tens of millions of flights a year. 9 terminals operate for passenger comfort. Flights are operated to Pacific islands, U.S. cities, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Annual passenger traffic reached 85 million people.

O'Hare Chicago (ORD)

One of the largest hubs in the U.S. was opened in 1944. Americans call it the most comfortable and convenient. Chicago Air Port receives flights from 60 countries and is the base for United Airlines. Uninterrupted 24-hour operation is possible with 6 runways and 5 terminals.

The number of passengers carried exceeded 80 million.

Heathrow (LHR)

Лондонский Хитроу — самый загруженный в Европе. Через него проходят рейсы из Азии в Атлантику, грузы. Оснащен 5 удобными терминалами, двумя ВПП. Здесь обслуживаются 90 авиакомпаний со всего мира. Из всех совершаемых рейсов лишь 11% приходятся на внутренние перевозки.

It is designed to serve 45 million passengers a year, but in 2018 this figure reached 78169000.

Hong Kong (HKG)

Имеет неофициальное название Чхеклапкок, оно олицетворяет имя острова, на котором построен хаб. Гонконгский аэропорт — лидер по количеству обслуживаемых грузовых рейсов, работает круглосуточно. Имеет 2 ВПП, 2 пассажирских терминала. На территории порта располагается центр деловой авиации.

Пропускная способность на сегодняшний день показала, что 73 миллиона перевезенных пассажиров — не предел.

Pudong (PVG)

Шанхайский Пудун — новейшая воздушная гавань на берегу Восточно-Китайского моря. Три взлетно-посадочные полосы и два терминала были открыты в 1999 году. Полосы строились таким образом, чтобы в будущем принимать самолеты большой вместимости. Китай испытывает на себе стремительный рост пассажиропотока и грузооборота.

In 2018, 70 million passengers were served.

Charles de Gaulle (CDG)

Paris Charles de Gaulle airport is also close to 70 million passengers, second only to the air hub in Frankfurt in terms of the amount of cargo handled annually. It is the main hub for the national carrier Air France. It has four runways, two of which are over 4,000 meters long.

The number of citizens served from around the world reached 69.5 million.

Top 5 in Russia

Air travel in Russia is actively developing despite the presence of obvious problems. We present a rating of the largest air hubs in Russia at the beginning of 2019. The indicators are shown in the table below. From the information provided, you can find out which airport in Moscow is the largest.

Sheremetyevo (SVO)

Шереметьево — самый крупный воздушный хаб Москвы и России в целом. Он занимает первое место сразу по двум параметрам. В прошедшем году пассажиропоток увеличился на 15,6%. Соединяет столицу с Северной Америкой, Азией, Северной Африкой.

It is located in the Khimki district of Moscow, has a developed infrastructure, is connected to the capital by bus routes and aeroexpress train, which moves without stops. There are 6 terminals, 2 runways, one more is under construction.

It bears the name of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

Pulkovo

The main air gateway of the Northern Capital, St. Petersburg. The base hub for Rossiya Airlines. It is equipped with two modern runways, has been renovated and a new passenger terminal built. Over the past 10 years, the annual passenger flow has doubled.

Vnukovo

Equipped with three passenger terminals, "Vnukovo" is one of the three most used in Russia. 80% of passenger traffic is provided by the basic airlines for the port:

• "Victory;
• "UTair;
• "Russia.

Connected to the capital by a separate rail route, from here there are flights to Europe, Latin America, and Asian countries.

Domodedovo

The list would not be complete without the third hub in the capital, located 45 kilometers from Moscow. It is equipped with two runways located far apart, allowing for simultaneous takeoff and landing, which is unavailable to aircraft served at the other three capital airports.

There is one passenger terminal, with an area of 135,000 sq. m.²The status of international was obtained in 1992, before that domestic flights were served.

Koltsovo

Аэропорт Екатеринбурга «Кольцово» — один из старейших в России, сегодня модернизирован. Пассажиропоток в 2018 году вырос на 13%. Соединен с центром Екатеринбурга железнодорожной веткой. Имеет две современные ВПП, способен принимать все типы самолетов кроме двухпалубного Airbus A380.

Connects the heart of Siberia with European, Asian and Russian cities. Below is a comparative table of facilities.

Port name	Area, km2	Passenger traffic for 2018, million people
Sheremetyevo	480	45,84
Pulkovo	450	18,12
Vnukovo	270	21,48
Domodedovo	135	29,4
Koltsovo	80	6,103

It is noteworthy that the Airport Council International recognized the best hub in Europe Airport Sochi (AER).

The largest in Europe

The largest airport in Europe by area is the Charles de Gaulle hub in Paris, mentioned earlier. It is noteworthy that the futuristic design of the terminal caught the eye of Alexander Mitte, the director of the Soviet movie "The Crew", and a number of scenes were filmed here.

Equipped with two train stations, bus lines that connect the air gate to the center of Paris.

Largest airports in the U.S.

Air travel between U.S. cities is well developed. Passenger traffic of one city can exceed the statistics of an entire country in Eastern Europe. Small aviation is well developed. Consider the 3 largest ports in terms of area.

Denver

Крупнейший аэропорт США, расположен в одноименном городе штата Колорадо. Открыт сравнительно недавно, в 1995 году. На его территории построена бетонная полоса для посадки и взлетов рекордной длины — 4877 метров. Считается одним из самых функциональных в мире. Среди местных жителей о размерах аэропорта ходят легенды. Считается, что под ним расположены секретные бункеры.

Dallas

The main air gateway for the state of Texas, with five terminals and a cargo port. Six runways of different sizes provide the functionality and can be expanded to 13 terminals. Air Cargo World called Dallas the best airport in the world.

O'Hara

Chicago Air Harbor was considered the busiest port in the world until 2005. This situation increased the number of flight delays to all destinations, so the state government insisted on reducing flights.

Conclusions

1. Аэропорты оцениваются как по величине занимаемой площади, так и по загруженности. Самый большой аэропорт по площади располагается в столице Саудовской Аравии, Эр-Рияде и носит имя короля Халида. Самый загруженный — Хартсфилд-Джексон в американском городе Атланта. В год через него проходит более 104000000 пассажиров.
2. Самый большой аэропорт России — Шереметьево. Он же и самый загруженный. В пятерку крупнейших в стране входят три столичных хаба.
3. Крупнейший воздушный порт Европы — парижский хаб имени Шарля де Голля.
4. In the U.S., the top spot for early 2019 belongs to the Port of Denver, Colorado.