Dubai International Airport (DXB) retained its position as the world's third busiest airport in the world last year, handling over 83 million passengers over 12 months, data revealed.

According to the 2017 world airport traffic rankings by Airports Council International (ACI), Atlanta-Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL) took the pole position, processing almost 104 million passengers in 2017.

The ACI study found Beijing (PEK), the gateway to China’s 1.4 billion people, to be the world’s second busiest airport.

Demand has continued its robust year-on-year growth across the world’s major airports. Passenger traffic at the world’s 20 busiest airports grew by 5.2 per cent in 2017. With almost 1.5 billion passengers passing through their terminals in 2017, this group of 20 represents 17 per cent of global passenger traffic.

Among the top 10, Dubai was the third fastest growing at 5.5 per cent following Tokyo's Haneda International Airport (6.5 per cent) and Shanghai's Pudong International Airport (6.1 per cent).

Tokyo's Haneda International improved its ranking by one point to fourth while Los Angeles slipped one place to number 5. Chicago, London, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Paris made it to the top 10 list of ACI. - TradeArabia News Service