FAA CY2025 PRELIMINARY · PUBLISHED JULY 26, 2026 · UPDATED THE WEEK FAA FINALS DROP (LATE AUGUST)
Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta (ATL) is the busiest airport in the United States, with 51,459,786 passenger boardings in 2025 — down 2.0% from 2024, yet still almost 10 million ahead of #2 Dallas–Fort Worth. FAA preliminary data, all 50 airports below.
| # | Airport | Code | City | 2025 boardings* | 2024 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta International | ATL | Atlanta, GA | 51,459,786 | 52,511,402 | ▼ 2.0% |
| 2 | Dallas-Fort Worth International | DFW | Fort Worth, TX | 41,297,009 | 42,351,316 | ▼ 2.5% |
| 3 | Chicago O'Hare International | ORD | Chicago, IL | 40,680,735 | 38,575,693 | ▲ 5.5% |
| 4 | Denver International | DEN | Denver, CO | 39,976,695 | 40,012,895 | ▼ 0.1% |
| 5 | Los Angeles International | LAX | Los Angeles, CA | 36,497,303 | 37,760,834 | ▼ 3.4% |
| 6 | John F Kennedy International | JFK | New York, NY | 30,792,806 | 31,466,102 | ▼ 2.1% |
| 7 | Orlando International | MCO | Orlando, FL | 27,999,709 | 27,859,783 | ▲ 0.5% |
| 8 | Harry Reid International | LAS | Las Vegas, NV | 26,531,765 | 28,244,966 | ▼ 6.1% |
| 9 | Miami International | MIA | Miami, FL | 26,450,972 | 26,588,002 | ▼ 0.5% |
| 10 | San Francisco International | SFO | San Francisco International Airport, CA | 26,251,850 | 25,078,968 | ▲ 4.7% |
| 11 | Charlotte/Douglas International | CLT | Charlotte, NC | 25,873,555 | 28,523,822 | ▼ 9.3% |
| 12 | Seattle-Tacoma International | SEA | Seattle, WA | 25,417,071 | 25,414,592 | ▲ 0.0% |
| 13 | Phoenix Sky Harbor International | PHX | Phoenix, AZ | 25,094,817 | 25,595,723 | ▼ 2.0% |
| 14 | Newark Liberty International | EWR | Newark, NJ | 23,464,492 | 24,544,320 | ▼ 4.4% |
| 15 | George Bush Intcntl/Houston | IAH | Houston, TX | 23,265,028 | 23,349,157 | ▼ 0.4% |
| 16 | General Edward Lawrence Logan International | BOS | Boston, MA | 21,021,153 | 21,090,721 | ▼ 0.3% |
| 17 | Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain | MSP | Minneapolis, MN | 17,488,261 | 18,054,481 | ▼ 3.1% |
| 18 | Detroit Metro Wayne County | DTW | Detroit, MI | 16,294,768 | 16,110,696 | ▲ 1.1% |
| 19 | Laguardia | LGA | New York, NY | 16,278,532 | 16,715,567 | ▼ 2.6% |
| 20 | Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International | FLL | Fort Lauderdale, FL | 15,646,752 | 17,096,131 | ▼ 8.5% |
| 21 | Philadelphia International | PHL | Philadelphia, PA | 14,779,849 | 15,102,261 | ▼ 2.1% |
| 22 | Washington Dulles International | IAD | Dulles, VA | 13,859,569 | 13,003,234 | ▲ 6.6% |
| 23 | Salt Lake City International | SLC | Salt Lake City, UT | 13,429,128 | 13,543,570 | ▼ 0.8% |
| 24 | San Diego International | SAN | San Diego, CA | 12,675,684 | 12,780,013 | ▼ 0.8% |
| 25 | Nashville International | BNA | Nashville, TN | 12,549,304 | 12,058,688 | ▲ 4.1% |
| 26 | Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall | BWI | Glen Burnie, MD | 12,274,134 | 13,221,461 | ▼ 7.2% |
| 27 | Tampa International | TPA | Tampa, FL | 12,110,427 | 12,075,591 | ▲ 0.3% |
| 28 | Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl | DCA | Arlington, VA | 12,003,594 | 12,750,892 | ▼ 5.9% |
| 29 | Austin-Bergstrom International | AUS | Austin, TX | 10,651,727 | 10,678,073 | ▼ 0.2% |
| 30 | Daniel K Inouye International | HNL | Honolulu, HI | 10,430,353 | 10,449,022 | ▼ 0.2% |
| 31 | Chicago Midway International | MDW | Chicago, IL | 9,367,712 | 10,360,093 | ▼ 9.6% |
| 32 | Portland International | PDX | Portland, OR | 9,054,394 | 8,639,088 | ▲ 4.8% |
| 33 | Dallas Love Field | DAL | Dallas, TX | 8,151,354 | 8,654,991 | ▼ 5.8% |
| 34 | Raleigh-Durham International | RDU | Raleigh, NC | 7,670,956 | 7,584,394 | ▲ 1.1% |
| 35 | St Louis Lambert International | STL | St. Louis, MO | 7,483,526 | 7,807,362 | ▼ 4.2% |
| 36 | Sacramento International | SMF | Sacramento, CA | 6,805,910 | 6,679,426 | ▲ 1.9% |
| 37 | William P Hobby | HOU | Houston, TX | 6,790,274 | 7,116,967 | ▼ 4.6% |
| 38 | Luis Munoz Marin International | SJU | San Juan, PR | 6,658,037 | 6,490,669 | ▲ 2.6% |
| 39 | Louis Armstrong New Orleans International | MSY | Kenner, LA | 6,221,146 | 6,537,092 | ▼ 4.8% |
| 40 | Kansas City International | MCI | Kansas City, MO | 5,613,974 | 5,915,078 | ▼ 5.1% |
| 41 | John Wayne/Orange County | SNA | Santa Ana, CA | 5,521,729 | 5,370,273 | ▲ 2.8% |
| 42 | Southwest Florida International | RSW | Fort Myers, FL | 5,504,420 | 5,425,293 | ▲ 1.5% |
| 43 | Norman Y Mineta San Jose International | SJC | San Jose, CA | 5,257,421 | 5,822,019 | ▼ 9.7% |
| 44 | San Antonio International | SAT | San Antonio, TX | 5,237,816 | 5,466,684 | ▼ 4.2% |
| 45 | Indianapolis International | IND | Indianapolis, IN | 5,221,447 | 5,181,947 | ▲ 0.8% |
| 46 | Cleveland-Hopkins International | CLE | Cleveland, OH | 4,855,943 | 4,950,345 | ▼ 1.9% |
| 47 | Pittsburgh International | PIT | Pittsburgh, PA | 4,792,035 | 4,862,376 | ▼ 1.4% |
| 48 | Oakland San Francisco Bay | OAK | Oakland, CA | 4,532,494 | 5,292,736 | ▼ 14.4% |
| 49 | John Glenn Columbus International | CMH | Columbus, OH | 4,396,625 | 4,387,395 | ▲ 0.2% |
| 50 | Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International | CVG | Hebron, KY | 4,366,865 | 4,500,414 | ▼ 3.0% |
*Enplanements = passengers boarding, the FAA's official ranking measure (roughly half of total passenger traffic, which counts arrivals too). CY2025 figures are FAA preliminary; this page updates the week final numbers publish in late August.
| Airport | YoY | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Washington Dulles International IAD | ▲ 6.6% | 13,859,569 |
| Chicago O'Hare International ORD | ▲ 5.5% | 40,680,735 |
| Portland International PDX | ▲ 4.8% | 9,054,394 |
| San Francisco International SFO | ▲ 4.7% | 26,251,850 |
| Nashville International BNA | ▲ 4.1% | 12,549,304 |
| Airport | YoY | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Oakland San Francisco Bay OAK | ▼ 14.4% | 4,532,494 |
| Norman Y Mineta San Jose International SJC | ▼ 9.7% | 5,257,421 |
| Chicago Midway International MDW | ▼ 9.6% | 9,367,712 |
| Charlotte/Douglas International CLT | ▼ 9.3% | 25,873,555 |
| Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International FLL | ▼ 8.5% | 15,646,752 |
Three structural reasons: it is Delta Air Lines' largest hub, it sits in a corner of the country that makes it a natural connecting point between the eastern seaboard, the Midwest and the Sun Belt, and its five parallel runways let it process connecting banks at volumes few airports can match. Atlanta has now led the US ranking for more than two decades — even in a down year (–2.0% in 2025) nobody comes close on passengers. But note the asterisk: by aircraft movements, the world's busiest airport is now Chicago O'Hare — see the world ranking.
Fourteen of these fifty airports are in our hand-verified TSA wait-times directory — including Atlanta, Denver, Orlando, San Francisco and Phoenix. Airport names in the table above link straight to their verified wait-time source.
Source: Transit Barometer — The 50 Busiest US Airports (2026), from FAA CY2025 preliminary enplanement data. Atlanta (ATL) leads with 51,459,786 boardings. https://transitbarometer.com/busiest-airports/
Methodology & sources: FAA commercial-service enplanement data, CY2025 preliminary (released June 2026) and CY2024 final (https://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/passenger/arp-cy2025-commercial-service-enplanements-preliminary.xlsx). Enplanements count boarding passengers only. Aircraft-movement figures: ACI World, 2025 confirmed rankings (July 2026). US federal data is public domain; this compilation is CC BY 4.0.