Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson dethroned as world's busiest airport: Dethroned by an airport you may not have ever heard of

American Thinker ^ | 04/25/2021 | Thomas Lifson

[SeekAndFind]

COVID-19 has brought an end to Atlanta's crown as the world's busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic. And it was not Chicago O'Hare or Dubai, its previous closest challengers, but Guangzhou Baiyun Airport that is now number one.

The city of Guangzhou may be more familiar to you as Canton, the name long used by Westerners for the city that dominates the Peral River Delta in Southern China, about 85 miles north of Hong Kong.  The Peral River Delta is now considered the world's most populous conurbation and the biggest manufacturing center in the world, following decades of outsourcing manufacturing to China.

Terminal 2 at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport.
Photo credit: Jacky Cheung CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Patrick Clarke reports in Travel Pulse:

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has been unseated as the world's busiest airport after 22 consecutive years in the top spot.

According to new figures released by airport trade organization Airports Council International (ACI), China's Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport was the world's busiest in 2020 while ATL fell to number two. What's more, Chinese airports accounted for seven of the world's top 10 busiest airports last year.

The second surprise there, the fact that China's airports take seven of the top ten slots for the busiest airports in the world, is even more significant.  Part of the surge is because the pandemic that originated in China has devastated other countries' business travel, the core of the airline industry's traffic, while China's economy has bounced back much faster.  (Why that is the case ought to be a central political issue of our time.)  But the second element of the rise is because China's vast population now can afford air travel for both business and pleasure,

[blueunicorn6]

The Chinese are flying around to see China.

I guess General Tso’s Chicken tastes different depending on where you are.

[Red Badger]

The #27 is to die for!...........................

[dfwgator]

Another US Airport I can’t stand.

[Candor7]

I will move to Guangzhou right away.

Hunter Biden will find me a job.

[the_daug]

Canton country.

[freedumb2003]

>>I guess General Tso’s Chicken tastes different depending on where you are.<<

In many places in China it is General Tso’s Kitten.

[ConservativeMind]

My wife and I seem to run into famous actors and actresses from Fox shows only at that Atlanta airport.

[Jeff Chandler]

At one time Williams Air Force Base the busiest airport in the world, based on take offs and landings.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: I guess General Tso’s Chicken tastes different depending on where you are.

I still cannot for the life of me determine who this General is and what makes his name associated with a famous dish.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I could never eat that. My biggest concern would be as soon as I start eating a Chinese general would come up and say “why you eat my chicken. I no see you name on it.”

[chajin]

Will the OH city have to change its name to Guangzhou in order to avoid the spectre of white supremacy?

[Jemian]

My husband and I flew through there about 10 years ago. The experience was so awful that we take more expensive flights in order to avoid it and the rest of the communist china.

[EinNYC]

Isn’t Guangzhou the heart of Chinese animal cruelty? Eating the meat of tortured pets?

[chajin]

I still cannot for the life of me determine who this General is and what makes his name associated with a famous dish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuo_Zongtang

[SeekAndFind]

Guangzhou is were the tech city of Shenzen is. This is the HQ of the 5G telecom giant - Huawei.

It’s also where the largest video game vendor is located, the company called Tencent.

[9YearLurker]

Not particularly surprising.

Of course, pairing that with the WHO reporting only 1/300th the Covid death rate in China as in the US could perhaps wake up a few more people.

[Verginius Rufus]

It's in the Peral River Delta, so fly there at your own peral.

When are Canton, Ohio, and Pekin, Illinois, going to update their names?

[hecticskeptic]

My husband and I flew through there about 10 years ago. The experience was so awful that we take more expensive flights in order to avoid it and the rest of the communist china.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Really... I flew through there about 10 years ago and found it be a great airport in just about every way. There was one memory I had there that was totally baffling... There were 5 of us in the group and we were all hungry so we stopped at a nice restaurant after security and stuffed ourselves on dim sum. Somebody noticed we could get coffee (generally not all that common in China restaurants but this was an airport) and so we all got one.... it was very nice coffee but I was floored when I got the bill. We ate a ton of food but the coffee was about 3/4 of the bill!

[bert]

A while back, FORBES wrote a very long article about the Pearl River Delta Region. I believe that the rather contained area at the Pearl River estuary just north of Hong Kong and Macao now has a population of ~68 million people. I couldn’t find the article today

The area defined as the Pearl River Delta Region is the 13th largest economy in the world.

In my view the CCP actions in Hong Kong were an attempt to stop the relative freedoms in Hong Kong and perhaps Macao from spreading into the whole region. I suspect the CCP was too late in the action

The delta and it’s millions living the good life are a mortal threat to the CCP