These Are the 10 Biggest Airports in the U.S.—A List That Might Surprise You

27.06.2024 - 19:11 / afar.com

A big airport can sometimes feel like a teeming metropolis—or an “aerotropolis” as it were, a term coined to describe these rising mega-airport-cum-commerce centers. In fact, the largest U.S. airfields, in terms of area covered, are literally as big as a decent-sized city. And, just like any major city, they also seem to be in a constant state of demolition and reconstruction, with sprawling new terminals being erected to accommodate an ever-growing population of travelers. Last year, U.S. airports handled more than 1 billion passengers flying on U.S. and international carriers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and the number is expected to only continue to rise in the coming years.

So, what are the biggest U.S. airports in terms of land mass? Interestingly, they’re not necessarily the busiest; in fact Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, which handles more passengers annually than any other airport in the world, isn’t even in the top 10 when it comes to sheer size. Here, is the ranking based on the airports’ own published dimensions and local government data.

Denver International Airport is the second largest airport in the world after the humongous King Fahd Airport in Saudi Arabia—it’s so huge that it’s more than double the size of the next largest U.S. airport, Dallas Fort Worth. At 53 square miles, it’s larger than the cities of San Francisco, Boston, and Miami. And that’s no accident. In the 1990s, when the city of Denver chose to scrap its close-in but outmoded airport Stapleton, it opted to build the replacement airfield on a site that was 25 miles from downtown. The extra breathing room allowed it to build six runways, and the Denver hub recently completed a terminal expansion that added 39 new gates, bringing the total number of gates across the airport’s three terminals to 90 (a 30 percent increase over its previous capacity). The airport only takes up a fraction of the massive space it owns, and given all that extra square footage, it offers many ways to experience the outdoors, including an 82,000-square-foot outdoor plaza that’s open to travelers as well as to the general public. Its terminals also boast three outdoor decks, post-security, with views of the Colorado plains in the distance.

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is one of the biggest and busiest airports in the country—and it’s also bigger than Manhattan in New York.

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The phrase “everything is bigger in Texas” doesn’t just refer to big hats and big hair—it could also describe its super-sized airports: The Lone Star state is home to two of the biggest U.S. airports. And as the home base of the world’s largest carrier, American Airlines, Dallas Fort Worth International