1) PEK 63.2m
2) ATL 63.0m
3) HND 56m
4) DXB 56m
5) LAX 52m
6) LHR 51m
7) ORD 50m
Source: OAG, YE August 2019

Not sure when PEK went by ATL. DXB was ahead of HND until the runway construction.

It was inevitable given the growing Chinese market. But perhaps that will change back when Daxing opens.

LAXdude1023 wrote:

It was inevitable given the growing Chinese market. But perhaps that will change back when Daxing opens.

Inevitable due to high transfer rate by DL at ATL too.

I'm surprised this didn't happen earlier.

Where is LAX on the list? I thought LAX had the highest US O&D.

Lightsaber

PEK will be split soon so will go right down

lightsaber wrote:

LAXdude1023 wrote:

It was inevitable given the growing Chinese market. But perhaps that will change back when Daxing opens.

Inevitable due to high transfer rate by DL at ATL too.

I'm surprised this didn't happen earlier.

Where is LAX on the list? I thought LAX had the highest US O&D.

Lightsaber

A high ratio of connecting passengers should increase seat count, not lower it. LAX is in the OP's list at number 5.

The reference doesn't recognize load factors. Passengers in seats are revenue; empty seats are just a cost.

lightsaber wrote:

LAXdude1023 wrote:

It was inevitable given the growing Chinese market. But perhaps that will change back when Daxing opens.

Inevitable due to high transfer rate by DL at ATL too.

I'm surprised this didn't happen earlier.

Where is LAX on the list? I thought LAX had the highest US O&D.

It's about seat count (thus regardless of load-factor). Has nothing to do with O&D.

Maybe ATL needs a second airport?

I'm surprised HND made the list. I always though NRT is bigger and had more passengers.

MIflyer12 wrote:

lightsaber wrote:

LAXdude1023 wrote:

It was inevitable given the growing Chinese market. But perhaps that will change back when Daxing opens.

Inevitable due to high transfer rate by DL at ATL too.

I'm surprised this didn't happen earlier.

Where is LAX on the list? I thought LAX had the highest US O&D.

Lightsaber

A high ratio of connecting passengers should increase seat count, not lower it. LAX is in the OP's list at number 5.

The reference doesn't recognize load factors. Passengers in seats are revenue; empty seats are just a cost.

I think what he means is that, the more passengers that travel through an airport, the more easily they are to be re-routed through other airports. Only O&D is guaranteed for the airport in question.

Ziyulu wrote:

I'm surprised HND made the list. I always though NRT is bigger and had more passengers.

HND is preferred over NRT by many in the TYO region due to its more convenient location, as well as always having been Japan's #1 domestic hub. Now that it has been expanded and reopened to long-haul international service it has grown tremendously.

Ziyulu wrote:

I'm surprised HND made the list. I always though NRT is bigger and had more passengers.

HND is actually the bigger airport. Bigger terminals with more jet bridges, more runways, more passengers.

Jetty wrote:

lightsaber wrote:

LAXdude1023 wrote:

It was inevitable given the growing Chinese market. But perhaps that will change back when Daxing opens.

Inevitable due to high transfer rate by DL at ATL too.

I'm surprised this didn't happen earlier.

Where is LAX on the list? I thought LAX had the highest US O&D.

It's about seat count (thus regardless of load-factor). Has nothing to do with O&D.

Ahhh.. need more coffee, seats...

An interesting metric, but moving empty seats is not a positive.

leader1 wrote:

Ziyulu wrote:

I'm surprised HND made the list. I always though NRT is bigger and had more passengers.

HND is actually the bigger airport. Bigger terminals with more jet bridges, more runways, more passengers.

Adding on - HND has always been the bigger airport with ~2x the pax compare to NRT, even before the current HND expansion. HND is also larger land-area wise (1516 ha) vs. NRT (1111 ha).

Interesting to see PEK passing ATL for departing seats. With PKX opening later this year, though, I doubt PEK will claim #1 in terms of total passenger number this year.

zakuivcustom wrote:

leader1 wrote:

Ziyulu wrote:

I'm surprised HND made the list. I always though NRT is bigger and had more passengers.

HND is actually the bigger airport. Bigger terminals with more jet bridges, more runways, more passengers.

Adding on - HND has always been the bigger airport with ~2x the pax compare to NRT, even before the current HND expansion. HND is also larger land-area wise (1516 ha) vs. NRT (1111 ha).

Interesting to see PEK passing ATL for departing seats. With PKX opening later this year, though, I doubt PEK will claim #1 in terms of total passenger number this year.

Given the stats above, it seems likely they wouldn't pass ATL anyways. Load factors in China average about 80-82% versus 84-87% in the US, so for every 100 departing seats in there are on average 2-3 more that are filled with passengers in the US than in China.

Of course this varies by airport, but if anything that tilts the favor more to Atlanta. Delta's systemwide load factors are higher than the national average and Atlanta is probably on the higher end of the spectrum given their ability to manage load factors given the airport's scale.

There was always only a small chance of China beating out ATL this year - even without PKX. Even if ATL had zero grow (unlikely as load factors have been great this year and the economy is still doing well), PEK would still have to grow more than last year, which is unlikely given that the Chinese economy has cooled a bit this year from last year.