Report: CLT Airport is among the busiest globally

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Charlotte Douglass International Airport, which is American Airlines’ second-largest hub, has once again been deemed as one of the world’s busiest airports, a new report states.

Per the Airports Council International (ACI) preliminary rankings, CLT Airport ranks seventh internationally for arrivals and departures with over 500,000 in 2022. This is a slight drop off from the previous year, in which the airport ranked fifth in that category.

CLT Airport also ended 2022 with the 19th most passenger traffic in the world and had the 10th most passengers among North American airports – nearly 48 million, the report states. That figure marks a 10% jump from 43 million passengers in 2021 and sits just below 2019′s record of 50 million.

In addition to these numbers, airport CEO Haley Gentry announced that this year is helping the airport overshoot post-COVID-19 projections:

“2023 is on pace to be a 100% recovery from the pandemic, one year earlier than forecasted, as we begin our busiest summer ever,” Gentry said in a statement.

To accommodate its growth, the airport has continued to prepare for Destination CLT, a $3.1 billion capital investment in capacity enhancement, a news release stated.

The ACI final rankings will be made public in the late summer/early fall.

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