When people refer to “big” airports, they typically think of large hubs with huge numbers of passengers transiting through. But bigger doesn’t always mean busier. The largest airports in the world are those that occupy the highest total acreage of land. And yes, some of the biggest are also some of the world’s busiest—but not always.
So, what are the behemoths that make up the list of world’s largest airports? Because there’s no single, authoritative source for this data, here is our ranking based on the airports’ own published dimensions, local government data, and other sources, such as Guinness World Records.
What is the world’s largest airport?
The world’s biggest airport is King Fahd International Airport, in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. The gargantuan hub tops the list, a status bestowed by Guinness World Records, but its purported size is so mind-boggling that it begs additional research. Its 300-square-mile girth would be the equivalent of an entire country, and, yes, this airport is about the same size as neighboring Bahrain.
What is the largest airport in the United States?
Denver International Airport embraces wide-open spaces—it’s so big that it’s more than double the size of the next largest U.S. airport, Dallas/Fort Worth. The airport has three outdoor decks, postsecurity, with views of the Rocky Mountains and Colorado plains in the distance. There is also an 82,000-square-foot outdoor plaza that’s open to travelers and the general public, and in 2022, the airport completed a capacity expansion project that added 39 new gates (for a total of 148) and increased the terminal’s capacity by 30 percent.
The 15 largest airports in the world
This article was originally published on September 12, 2023, and was updated with new information on November 21, 2024.
