[INSIGHT] WHICH AIRPORT WAS THE BUSIEST IN 2013?

2013 in REVIEW
From the IATA [1],

• On average, there are more than 8 million people flying every day. 2013 total passenger numbers were 3.1 billion which breaks the 3 billion barrier for the first time.
• The industry supports over 57 million jobs and generates $2.2 trillion US in economic activity worldwide. 

The following is the list of the world's busiest airports by passengers for 2013 (with comparisons to 2012) [2]:
  

 Key Observations

• The top 20 airports accounted for approximately 40% of the world's traffic in 2013. Total passengers for these airports increased by 3.3% from 2012. 
• Although passenger traffic decreased by 5.5%, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport remains the busiest airport by passenger for the a 15th year in a row.
• Dubai, Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur continued to make strides by having the 3 highest percentage increases in passengers.  All three airports feature high growth airlines (Dubai - Emirates (Airline Code: EK), Istanbul - Turkish (TK) and Kuala Lumpur - Air Asia and Malaysian (MH)).

DETAIL LOOK

The following table provides more information on each of the Top 20 airport (click picture for a larger view). [3][4][5]

[1] - A transfer is required from subway or Long Island Railway to AirTrain before reaching the airport. A separate fee is collected.

Key Observations

• The biggest mover is Kuala Lumpur International Airport which moved up 7 spots into the top 20 in 2013.
• Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is the closet to the city centre while Kuala Lumpur is the furthest. 
• All the top 20 airports now featured some form of free-wifi for passengers.  However, there are only a handful like Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Singapore which have unlimited access or would not require a separate login.
• All the top 20 airports are north of the equator except for the Jarkata Soekarno-Hatta International Airport  (06°07′32″S 106°39′21″E) 
• Although passenger traffic decreased by 5.5%, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airports remains the busiest airport by passenger for the a 15th year in a row.
• Dubai, Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur continued to make strides by having the 3 highest percentage increases in passengers.  All three airports feature high growth airlines (Dubai - Emirates (Airline Code: EK), Istanbul - Turkish (TK) and Kuala Lumpur - Air Asia and Malaysia Airline (MH)).
• For convenience most of top 20 have direct access to hotels within the airport except four which are all located in the Americas.

TIME ZONES, LOCATIONS AND ALLIANCES

The following map provides information on where the Top 20 Airports by passengers are located around the world. The map also provides key data on timezones and alliance membership (click pic for a larger view). [6][7]

Key Observations

• All airlines are in one of three alliances (SkyTeam, Star Alliance or One World) except for Emirates and JetBlue which operate independently though each have some codeshare partnerships. 
• Most of the Top 20 airlines are located in Asia. 
• The longest current non-stop flight by distance is from Sydney, Australia to Dallas, USA by Qantas (QF). It is 8578 nautical miles in distance and is flown using a Boeing 747-400 currently. The trip takes 15hr 25min and travels over 15 time zones. [8]

Reference
[1] http://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2013-12-30-01.aspx Retrieved on September 8, 2014.
[2] Passengers data taken from Airport International Council website http://www.aci.aero/Data-Centre/Annual-Traffic-Data/Passengers Retrieved on September 8, 2014.
[3] Wifi and direct train access information is taken from each airport's website. Retrieved on September 6, 2014.
[4] Hotel information is taken from http://www.sleepinginairports.net/hotels/ Retrieved on September 6, 2014.
[5] Other information is taken from Wikipedia and each airport's website. Retrieved on September 2-6, 2014.
[6] Time zone map is taken from http://eurock2016.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/HiRes_timeZone.jpg  Retrieved on September 6, 2014. 
[7] Alliance information taken from each airline's website. Retrieved on September 6, 2014. 
[8] Non-stop flight information is taken from Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-stop_flight Retrieved on September 6, 2014.