O'Hare Vs. Hartsfield ATL for World's Busiest Airport

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Jul 19, 2004 11:42AM

O'Hare International and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport are in competition this year for the title World's Busiest Airport. O'Hare, so far this year, has handled almost a half-million flights, more than any other U.S. airport. Hartsfield has had fewer flights but handles more passengers and is on track to handle the most passengers this year. So, it all depends on the criteria on which you qualify the World's Busiest Airport. Is it number of flights or number of passengers? Experts cannot agree.

One thing we can all agree upon is that being in competition for World's Busiest Airport isn't all it's cracked up to be. Of all of O'Hare's departures, only 65% leave on time and only 60% of it's arriving flights get here on time. This puts O'Hare in last place in both of these categories among the 31 largest airports. We don't know about you, but Chicagoist would gladly surrender the title World's Busiest Airport if it meant that we could arrive and leave on time.