Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Chicago O’Hare International Airport remain at the center of a debate over which is truly the busiest airport in the United States, according to a May 2 article. The answer depends on how “busiest” is measured, with passenger numbers and aircraft movements offering different leaders.
Passenger traffic data shows that Atlanta handled about 106.3 million passengers in 2025, maintaining its position as the world’s busiest airport for passenger traffic for the 27th time in 28 years. Delta Air Lines plays a significant role at Atlanta, operating roughly 80% of all capacity at ATL during early 2026. In contrast, Chicago O’Hare ranked sixth globally with approximately 84.8 million passengers but leads when it comes to total aircraft movements due to its extensive regional network.
The article explains that O’Hare’s high number of takeoffs and landings—857,392 flights in 2025—results from numerous regional routes served by smaller planes such as air taxis. Nearly 80,000 of these were designated as air taxi flights compared to just over 7,500 at Atlanta. This difference reflects each city’s airline strategies: Delta supports high-density operations with larger jets out of Atlanta while United Airlines and American Airlines operate more frequent flights using smaller aircraft from Chicago.
Additional metrics such as revenue or number of airlines also highlight distinctions between the two airports but do not offer a definitive answer on which is busiest overall. For example, American Airlines achieved $54.6 billion in annual revenue for 2025; United Airlines reported $59.1 billion; Delta reached $63.4 billion—all record figures but not specific to one city or airport.
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Looking ahead, ongoing improvements at Chicago O’Hare may help it surpass Atlanta across more metrics in future years by increasing both gate capacity and space for passengers.
