A Code Orange Air Quality Alert has been issued in Charlotte, North Carolina for the rest of the week due to Canadian wildfires. This alert could cause air traffic in Charlotte to be impacted as reported by WBTV.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, smoke that has moved across the eastern U.S. is causing reduced visibility. This smoke could cause an impact on air travel. The Charlotte region is not the only area affected by this smoke. Other major East Coast cities like New York and Philadelphia may also have flight delays or cancellations.
Currently, at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, there have been more than 60 flight delays. As of 1 p.m. Thursday, there have been eight cancellations.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport Is The 7th Busiest In The World New Data Shows
Yes, you read that correctly. New data shows that Charlotte Douglas International Airport is the 7th busiest airport, not in the US but worldwide. This data comes from Airports Council International who recently released their yearly rankings. This is based on data from 2022. They actually rank the busiest airports based on a few different metrics this includes lists calculated by the following:
- Passengers (total passengers enplaned and deplaned counting passengers in transit one time)
- International Passengers (total international passengers enplaned and deplaned)
- Cargo (loaded and unloaded freight and mail including transit freight)
- International Freight (international freight loaded and unloaded including transit freight)
- Aircraft Movements (landings and takeoffs)
So which one of these did Charlotte Douglas International Airport rank 7th in? The last one – aircraft movements. This is actually down two spots from 2021 when CLT ranked 5th. In 2022 505,589 flights took off or landed in Charlotte. That’s a lot of planes. I was on a few of them but nowhere near that amount! One thing I found interesting about this data is that for both total passengers as well as aircraft movements these lists are very top-heavy with US cities. Atlanta took both of those titles. This confirms that while that drive to Atlanta from Charlotte is terrible, it’s probably better than flying! Does it surprise you that Charlotte Douglas International Airport is the 7th busiest in the world? Keep reading to see the full top 1o airports for aircraft movements below and read the full methodology from Airports Council International here.
