AURORA | It’s not your imagination. Denver International Airport is busy.
In fact, it was 2021’s third busiest airport in the world, according to a new ranking by the Airports Council International. The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport ranked first and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport ranked second.
Denver was followed by Chicago’s O’Hare airport in fourth place and Los Angles’ LAX in fifth place.
Denver saw nearly 59 million passengers in 2021, a 15% decrease from pre-pandemic numbers. In 2020, the airport still remained one of the top 10 busiest airports in the world, coming it at number eight. In 2019, it was ranked 16th busiest in the world.
“Despite the challenges, DEN has shown resiliency through the pandemic and has proven why Denver is such an important hub for our airline partners,” DEN CEO Phil Washington said in a statement. “As we continue to recover from the pandemic, we remain committed to working collaboratively with our airlines to expand DEN’s air service network providing even more travel options to and from Denver.”
Denver airport officials said traffic numbers seem to be “trending in a positive direction.” January still saw a 13% decrease in travelers from 2019 numbers, but February was the first month since the pandemic to see monthly increases compared to before the pandemic.
That dip in the beginning of the year was likely due to the wave of omicron variant cases sweeping the nation.