There are a lot of headlines right now about how Chicago O’Hare (ORD) has become the busiest airport in the United States, overtaking Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta (ATL). That’s interesting, because Atlanta has for years not only been the busiest airport in the country, but also the busiest airport in the world. So what has really happened here? Are the Windy City’s claims accurate?
In this post:
“Chicago O’Hare crowned America’s busiest airfield”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has issued a press release, declaring Chicago O’Hare the busiest airfield in the United States:
- In 2025, the airport saw 857,392 takeoffs and landings, more than any other airport in the country
- As a point of comparison, in 2024, the airport had 776,036 takeoffs and landings, meaning traffic grew around 10% year-over-year, which is impressive
How far ahead of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta was Chicago O’Hare?
- In 2025, the airport saw 807,625 takeoffs and landings, meaning Chicago saw around 6% more movements than Atlanta
- As a point of comparison, in 2024, the airport had 796,224 takeoffs and landings, meaning traffic grew only a little over 1% year-over-year, which isn’t so impressive
For what it’s worth, by this metric, the other top five airports in the country were Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Denver (DEN), and Las Vegas (LAS).
Here’s how Mayor Johnson describes this achievement for Chicago:
“This is more than a statistic, it’s a statement about Chicago’s momentum. From the runways of O’Hare to the neighborhoods across our city, Chicago is building, growing, and leading. We are open for business, open to the world, and once again setting the pace for the nation.”
Has Chicago really overtaken Atlanta? Not quite…
The Chicago Mayor is technically correct — Chicago O’Hare has become the busiest airfield, which is to say that it has the most aircraft movements. What’s interesting is how the media at large has picked up on this. Most stories suggest that Chicago now has the busiest airport in the country, but that’s not using the traditional metrics.
If you look at data from OAG, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta had 63.1 million departing seats in 2025, compared to Chicago O’Hare’s 50.6 million seats. By that metric, Atlanta has the world’s busiest airport, while Chicago has the world’s eighth busiest airport, and the difference in traffic between the airports is around 25%.
So what gives here? How can there be such a big difference between the number of seats and the number of takeoffs and landings? It’s quite simple — the average aircraft size in Atlanta is way bigger than in Chicago:
- Chicago O’Hare is a massive regional jet market, given that you have both American and United competing, with so many frequencies served by regional jets
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta is a fortress hub for Delta, so the airline largely flies big, mainline aircraft to the airport, rather than smaller regional jets
- I imagine that cargo and private jet operations are also a factor here, but not quite as much as the general difference in terms of passenger aircraft size
There’s no right or wrong way to define a “busy” airport. If you’re worried about whether the taxiway will be congested, then total number of movements is important (and gosh, O’Hare taxiway situation has sucked for a very long time).
Meanwhile if you’re worried about the terminal being crowded, then total number of passengers is important. By Chicago’s metrics of “busy,” Dubai would be considered a rather quiet airport, given that the average plane there is massive (Emirates has an all wide body fleet). That means the airport sees a ton of passengers, but not that many aircraft takeoffs and landings.
Anyway, with American and United competing so fiercely in Chicago, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Chicago narrow the gap on Atlanta a bit in 2026, but I wouldn’t expect passenger numbers in Chicago to exceed those in Atlanta.
Bottom line
Chicago O’Hare claims to now be the busiest airfield in the country. That’s true, which is to say that the airfield sees the most takeoffs and landings. What’s not quite true is how it’s widely being reported that Chicago O’Hare has overtaken Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta as the world’s busiest airport, if we’re measuring by passenger numbers (which is typically what people care about).
So while Chicago saw 6% more aircraft movements in 2025, Atlanta still saw around 25% more passengers. This comes down to the average aircraft size being much bigger in Atlanta… it’s that simple.
What do you make of this Atlanta vs. Chicago size battle?
Ben's use of "the airport" in the first 4 bullets is really cool -- in the first two, it is ORD, in the next two, it is ATL. The reader can only infer the referent of the 3rd and 4th bullets' instances of "the airport" from the existence of the first two bullets. (I started reading from the 3rd bullet for some reason and had no idea which airport was being talked about.) Presumably this...
Ben's use of "the airport" in the first 4 bullets is really cool -- in the first two, it is ORD, in the next two, it is ATL. The reader can only infer the referent of the 3rd and 4th bullets' instances of "the airport" from the existence of the first two bullets. (I started reading from the 3rd bullet for some reason and had no idea which airport was being talked about.) Presumably this is because the same info is being repeated but with different numbers, so it must be the other airport. And the first airport is clearly ORD. And we figure all this out without conscious thinking (unless we start with the 3rd bullet).
(This message possibly of interest to the small population who are both LangGeeks and AvGeeks.)
Lucky - Quick estimates I found online show that ORD does 10,000+ more cargo takeoff/landings than ATL. Might explain part of the discrepancy.
For the aircraft spotter, ORD is better than boring ATL, full of Delta planes. Of course, ORD cannot compare with LHR or JFK.
Ben is correct.
The skies over Chicago will become even more crowded as AA and UA fight it out w/ RJs trying to win on flights while limiting the amount of capacity.
Meanwhile, DL's hub at ATL has one of the highest average aircraft sizes of large US hubs.
and DL offers more seats from ATL than any other hub in the world.
We love our RJs, short bus rider. Go pleasure yourself with your A350-1000 sex toy and shut up.
It's irrelevant regarding passengers or enplanements. Chicago is by far the better city. Atlanta was burnt by General Sherman, we were burnt by a cow, which is far cooler. But it's mostly because United is headquartered here and Atlanta has the most evil airline on Earth, run by a man that mixes his analingus efforts on Satan and Guillaume Faury, and whose amateur spokestwit here is a verified retard (yes, you, Timbits).
Atlanta is racist but Chicago is famous for governors being promoted to prison inmate afterwards, Kerner, Walker, Ryan, Blago. Pritzker is so fat he should be on a prison diet.
Chicago architecture easily beats Atlanta. But Atlanta never committed terrorism in the form of a mayor destroying an airport (Meigs Field) in the early morning hours.
As a passenger, I slightly prefer ORD.
All of that is countered by the 100 Nobels won by my alma mater and the fact that I was born in the city.
least obvious ragebait
You’re absolutely correct, but let’s remember that it’s still the Midwest. Have some humility and remember that you share a country with the Northeast and California, even if you’re king of flyover land.
For what it’s worth, ORD almost certainly overtook DFW and DEN in passenger count this year, moving up from the #4 to the #2 slot. And it should add another 5%+ to that figure next year!
I assume Chicago probably experiences more cargo traffic than Atlanta. Does anyone know if that's true?
how much of a factor are the cargo flights for ORD? I definitely see a decent number of cargo 747s flying over in Chicago