In this article we will present the list of 10 busiest airports in the world (click to skip ahead and see the top 5 busiest airports in the world).
There was once a world in which travelling was acceptable, as evidenced by the 10 busiest airports in the world in 2020. The current pandemic has changed our lives in a way few could’ve foreseen. As billions around the world went into lockdown, global industries and economies have been devastated in a manner no one would’ve thought possible just six months ago. It could take years to recover from this, and even that would only bring us back to pre-pandemic levels. The potential growth which could have been achieved in the next few years has evaporated.
Nowhere is this more true than the airline industry, which has been utterly decimated. Airlines are losing incredible amounts of money and with global travel completely locked (and in many places, even domestic travel) airlines are bleeding money while trying to survive. Some sadly, have not survived, with Flybe becoming the first airline to declare bankruptcy back towards the end of March. 4.6 billion fewer people are expected to pass through airports in 2020, leading to a loss of $97 billion in revenue.
Airlines have been asking for money from governments because they could not survive even two months of a major business loss. Aren’t businesses supposed to have reserves they can count on in these times? Even major airlines, such as Emirates and Qatar Airways, have announced potentially tens of thousands of job cuts, and this comes even after most of the employees of most airlines were forced to take unpaid leave and / or have their salary significantly reduced. Trump’s bailout package kept $58 billion aside for the airline industry, though many are saying even this may not be enough to alleviate the situation. Around the world, some governments have bailed out their airlines such as France, while others are yet to listen to the pleas of the industry, such as in the UK.
Of course, even airports are now completely empty, as people cannot travel anymore in most countries. I saw a deserted Dubai Airport early morning in the beginning of March, when travel restrictions were yet to be imposed; I can only imagine how it looks like now. Most of these airports are also among the 10 largest airports in the world. The list below of the busiest airports in the world in 2020 will be a comparatively happier list; it’s based on rankings from 2019 and 2018, a time when no one could have imagined a global restriction on travel would emerge. So let’s take a look at this list, starting from number 10:
10. Hong Kong International Airport (HKG)
Hong Kong International Airport slid significantly in the rankings from 2018, where it was the 8th busiest airport, to 2019, where it was the 13th biggest airport, with 71.4 million annual visitors. Fun fact, Hong Kong has been the busiest airport by cargo for an entire decade.
Pixabay/Public Domain
