Delhi airport has dropped off the list of top ten busiest airports after three consecutive years due to flat traffic growth in CY 2025.
Last year Delhi airport handled 78.1 million passengers, an increase of 0.42 per cent of 2024. Delhi airport was the 11th busiest airport in 2025, according to Airports Council International (ACI) which released the data on Tuesday.
In 2022 and 2024, Delhi airport stood 9th and in 2023 it was ranked the 10th busiest airport globally.
Various Disruptions
Traffic growth at Delhi slowed down last year due to various reasons. The Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor last summer resulted in temporary suspension of flights at Jammu, Srinagar, Amritsar, Chandigarh and several other defence airfields curbing traffic growth.
“A three month closure of one its runways and IndiGo’s flight disruptions in December also impacted passenger footfalls,” an official said. The ongoing Pakistan airspace closure too is said to have lessened transit traffic at Delhi as flights operated by Indian carriers take longer than usual.
Delhi International Airport Limited did not respond to an email query.
Global Rankings
Atlanta airport in the US retained its rank as the busiest airport globally with 106 million passengers in 2025. For international passenger traffic and cargo traffic Dubai and Hong Kong airports retained their number one positions respectively.
In 2025 global passenger traffic is estimated to have reached 9.8 billion which is a growth of 3.6 per cent over 2024, ACI said.
“Asia Pacific airports are rebounding strongly, driving changes in global airport rankings. Shanghai Pudong airport recorded the biggest jump in the top ten, rising from 10th to 5th. Guangzhou Baiyun airport rebounded to 9th position up from 57th position in 2022,” it added.
Published on April 15, 2026