Largest airports in the world

Air travel has become a vital piece of the global economy. It is the most popular means of travel over long distances, capable of carrying vacationers, visitors, business people, or armed forces personnel to their destinations more quickly and safely than could rails, roads, or waterways. Air transport is also ideal for non-human cargo including mail, merchandise, and military payloads. As a result, cities around the world have adapted quickly, building enormous airports and support infrastructure to meet the ever-growing demand for affordable, available air transport. Which airport is the largest in the world? To answer that question, one must first define “largest.” This article will unpack the world’s largest airport three different ways: largest physical size, largest number of passengers, and largest total volume (number of flights).

Top largest airports in the world by land area (in square miles)

• King Fahd International (DMM) — Dammam, Saudi Arabia — 776 km2 (299.61 mi2)
• Denver International (DEN) — Denver, CO United States — 135.7 km2 (53.09 mi2)
• Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) — Dallas, TX United States — 69.6 km2 (26.88 mi2)
• Orlando International (MCO) — Orlando, FL United States — 53.8 km2 (20.78 mi2)
• Washington Dulles International (IAD) — Washington D.C., United States — 48.6 km2 (18.75 mi2)
• Beijing Daxing International (PKX) — Beijing, China — 46.6 km2 (18 mi2)
• George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) — Houston, TX United States — 44.5 km2 (17.19 mi2)
• Shanghai Pudong International (PVG) — Shanghai, China — 39.9 km2 (15.4 mi2)
• Cairo International (CAI) — Cairo, Egypt — 36.3 km2 (14 mi2)
• Suvarnabhumi International (BKK) — Bangkok, Thailand — 32.4 km2 (12.51 mi2)

In terms of overall size, the King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest airport by an overwhelming margin. Taking up nearly 300 square miles, this former United States airbase very nearly matches the area of all five boroughs of New York City put together (302.6 mi2). Its facilities include an onsite mosque capable of accommodating up to 2,000 worshippers at a time, a residential community that can support up to 3,000, and onsite greenhouses that supply the plant materials for the site’s landscaping.

Despite its massive footprint and impressive facilities, King Fahd International hosts only about 9.7 million passengers annually, which places it well outside the top 100 in the world in terms of traffic. In fact, King Fahd International is only the third-busiest airport in Saudi Arabia. The busiest is the King Abdulaziz International airport in Jeddah which sees 41 million passengers annually, many of whom seek pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca.

Moving indoors, the Beijing Daxing airport in China boasts the largest airport terminal in the world. With an area totaling nearly 696,773 square meters (7.5 million square feet), the terminal is roughly equivalent to 97 football/soccer fields (130 American football fields). The terminal at Beijing Daxing was laid out in a unique “starfish” shape to enable passengers to reach their departure gate as quickly as possible. As helpful as this forward-thinking design is now, it should become even more vital in the future—Beijing Daxing is projected to become the busiest airport in the world by 2040. Physical sprawl is impressive, but it is only one measure of size. Passenger counts are another. If one were to re-rank the list of top airports by total passengers served, the results would look markedly different.

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