Thursday, July 2, 2026

13 Busiest US Airports

I am getting on a plane today (or I'm on a plane or I'm getting off a plane, depending on when you read this). I am going to visit my brother and his family in Ohio for several days. (They have internet and I am taking my computer with me. I'll be around the blogosphere, although I may not be checking in daily.) So, in honor of my travel day, I thought it would be fun to find the top 13 U.S. airports. Yes, this is a Thursday 13

I got my data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, ranked by passenger enplanements for the year 2025. (I used the spreadsheet which was the third sheet tab at the bottom of the chart.) 

  1. Atlanta, GA (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International)
  2. Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (Dallas/Fort Worth International)
  3. Chicago, IL (Chicago O'Hare International)
  4. Denver, CO (Denver International)
  5. Los Angeles, CA (Los Angeles International)
  6. New York, NY (John F. Kennedy International)
  7. Orlando, FL (Orlando International)
  8. Las Vegas, NV (McCarran International)
  9. Miami, FL (Miami International)
  10. San Francisco, CA (San Francisco International)
  11. Charlotte, NC (Charlotte Douglas International)
  12. Seattle, WA (Seattle/Tacoma International)
  13. Phoenix, AZ (Phoenix Sky Harbor International)
None of the airports I'll be in are on this list. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I do know that when I went through Denver last year, things did not go so well

29 comments:

  1. Atlanta doesn't surprise me. I have to go through there all the time.

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    1. I would have thought it'd be New York or LA. But no.

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  2. Hope your travels go smoothly.
    https://misadventuresofwidowhood.blogspot.com

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    1. Thanks. I have successfully reached my destination.

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  3. I'm surprised there is no Boston Logan on the list. Happy trails!

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    1. The list was surprising for several reasons.

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  4. Its been a few years since I traveled via plane. I think it was 2021. I can just assume crap has gotten crazier in traveling and having to get off at different airports. I make it a point to fly non stop. So my trips to Calif are just at four hours. What is the time for your trip. In several post in the past yrs I have stated that I have been considered, strange, odd, etc, never whimsical, thank you, I would add that to my list.

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    1. I could probably go nonstop if I flew out of LAX, but no thank you. It was like 3 hours on one, 2 1/2 on the other.

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  5. Happy travels! I hope your flights go smoothly.

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  6. Glad I no longer travel! Hope your flights are smooth…

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  7. Hoping you had safe travels both yesterday and on your return flight. I've known too many people with recent bad experiences. The good news is, at least you have an airport. Ours almost lost its one airline earlier this year, which would have made anyone drive an hour to the nearest one just to be able to fly somewhere.

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    1. My area has several airports. It's the smaller airports that are nicer to fly out of, though.

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  8. Jamie here: Safe travels. I haven't been on a plane in years.

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  9. Happy journeys. Have a great holiday.

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  10. Waving hi to you from Ohio. Not sure where in Ohio your brother lives; but hope you have a good visit. We're experiencing an extreme heat advisory here in Columbus....for about a week. Maybe wherever you are will be better. Atlanta is a huge airport, but pretty easy to find your way, not so with other large airports. Hubby just got back from Dallas and he said it was a madhouse there. I hate JFK and try to avoid it as much as possible, but we almost always have to go there when we travel to Europe. I know the Charlotte airport pretty well as we typically fly through there a couple of times a year on our way to and from Hilton Head. Best of luck to you, flying just isn't like it used to be.

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    1. They're about 30-40 minutes outside of Columbus, so yeah, in the heat. I booked the trip a couple months ago, so I was taking my chances on the weather.

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  11. I knew about Atlanta, and once had to run through O'Hare to catch my connecting flight home, but figured San Fran would have been higher on the list. Thanks for sharing.

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  12. I have been to Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas, and San Francisco airports. Another impressive one, Washington isn't on this list.
    LA was a transit, but I missed the connecting flight to San Jose as the flight from London to LA took off late because of 'ash clouds' following volcanic eruptions somewhere in Europe. That was back in 2011 or so. We were put up in a hotel in LA and took another flight the next day morning.

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