The Official Airline Guide (OAG), a database that has been publishing flight analytics for nearly a century, releases a monthly ranking of the busiest global airports, and to our surprise, no NYC airport made the cut for August 2025!
Out of the 10 busiest international airports named in this month’s OAG ranking, four are located within the U.S. In fact, Georgia’s own Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is the busiest airport in the world for August 2025. Other U.S. airports that found their way on this month’s list include Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Denver International Airport, and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
OAG calculates the busiest airports by seats using total capacity for both international and domestic trips. Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is handling a total seat capacity as airlines schedule flights (different from the total number of actual passengers) of 5,432,723 seats. Whereas Dubai International Airport (the world’s second busiest airport) and Tokyo International Airport (the world’s third busiest airport) are handling seatings anywhere from 4,827,332 to 5,348,694 this month.
10 busiest airports in the world
- ATL – Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Intl Apt (5,432,723 seats) [2024 rank: 1]
- DXB – Dubai International (5,348,694 seats) [2024 rank: 2]
- HND – Tokyo Intl (Haneda) (4,827,332 seats) [2024 rank: 3]
- IST – Istanbul Airport (4,757,558 seats) [2024 rank: 6]
- ORD – Chicago O’Hare International Apt (4,658,786 seats) [2024 rank: 7]
- LHR – London Heathrow Apt (4,529,093 seats) [2024 rank: 4]
- PVG – Shanghai Pudong International Apt (4,518,851 seats) [2024 rank: 9]
- CAN – Baiyun Intl (China) (4,390,403 seats) [2024 rank: 10]
- DEN – Denver Intl Apt (4,386,869 seats) [2024 rank: 8]
- DFW – Dallas/Fort Worth Intl Apt (4,366,381 seats) [2024 rank: 5]
The busiest airports in August 2025 are the same as those ranked in August 2024, with only some changes in their order. This means that no NYC airports even ranked in the same month a year earlier.
Although OAG did not detail the amount of seats being handled this month at any NYC airport, a Stratos Jets report listed John F. Kennedy as the sixth busiest airport in America. Given that the New York City area hosts the nation’s busiest airport system—comprising John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark—one would expect at least one of its airports to feature among the world’s busiest.
Take a look at OAG’s ranking for yourself to see how that’s not the case!