2007 Passenger Traffic at North American Airports Up 3.5%

1.55 billion passengers move through airports; Cargo declines 1.1 percent

Washington, D.C. (August 7, 2008) – According to recent data released by Airports Council International, based in Geneva, nearly 1.55 billion passengers arrived and departed from North American airports in 2007, a 3.5 percent increase from the previous year. In contrast, cargo decreased by 1.1 percent while total operations also decreased by 0.9 percent.

“Despite the congestion and delays that many airline passengers experienced in 2007, airports worked hard to provide a positive experience for travelers last year,” said ACI-NA President Greg Principato. “While the short-term outlook for the aviation industry is uncertain, we expect that North American passenger traffic will continue to grow. The newest data also tells us that increasing investment in airport infrastructure is necessary at many facilities to meet the projected one billion enplaned passengers forecast to fly in the U.S. by 2016.”

The busiest airports sustained in their dominant position. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport stayed on top with over 89 million passengers, followed by Chicago O’Hare (76 million), and Los Angeles International Airport (62 million).

Memphis International Airport remained the largest cargo airport in the world, handling over 3.8 million metric tons, an increase of 4.0 percent from last year’s totals. Anchorage International Airport followed in third place in the world and second in North America increasing its cargo movements to nearly 2.8 million metric tons, a slight increase of 0.6 percent from 2006.

Atlanta continues to top the charts as the airport with the highest number of total operations worldwide with a total of 994,346 movements, a 1.8 percent increase; this is a contrast to a decrease in operations in 2006. Chicago ranked second, posting a 3.3 decrease in operations at 926,973 movements. Ranking third, Dallas/ Fort Worth International Airport reported 685,491 movements, a decrease of 2.0 percent.

Canada's most robust airport, once again, is Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport, ranked 18 in North America for passengers (31.4 million), 15 in total cargo (504,608 metric tons) and 15 in total movements (425,500).

The ACI-NA 2007 Traffic Report contains passenger, freight/mail and aircraft operations data for 181 North American airport members. Total passengers represent the sum of passengers enplaned and deplaned in all commercial services but not passengers who travel in business or general aviation modes of transportation. Total freight/mail figures represent the sum of the total freight and mail, both loaded and unloaded, at the reporting airport. Total aircraft operations reflect the sum total of all domestic commercial, international commercial, commuter, general aviation and military operations. The final 2007 North American traffic summary data is available on ACI-NA's Web site.

*Passenger traffic is defined as the aggregate total of arriving (deplanement) and departing (enplanement) passengers. Transfer passengers are only counted once.

About ACI-NA:

The mission of Airports Council International - North America (ACI-NA) is to advocate policies and provide services that strengthen the ability of air carrier airports to serve their passengers, customers and communities.  ACI-NA represents local, regional and state governing bodies that own and operate commercial airports in the United States and Canada.  ACI-NA member airports enplane more than 95 percent of the domestic and virtually all the international airline passenger and cargo traffic in North America.  Nearly 400 aviation-related businesses are also members of the association, which is the largest of the five worldwide regions of Airports Council International.

Contact:

Eileen Denne, edenne@aci-na.org, (202) 293-4537

Victoria Houghton vhoughton@aci-na.org, (202) 861-8080