Cirium, A Smarter Way to Travel, analyzes the aeronautical industry and monitors what happens in them times of COVID-19. In a report issued in early January 2021, Cirium revealed some interesting figures on what happened in aviation in 2020. First of all, we must mention that, globally, the number of commercial flights decreased by 42% in 2020 compared to 2019.
Unfortunately, travel restrictions imposed in 2020 have changed aviation rankings. We have a "top 10 airlines by number of flights registered in 2020”Totally different from 2019. Neither ranking of countries it did not escape without notable changes.
Also based on the figures provided by Cirium, we were able to achieve a "Top 10 airports by number of flights registered in 2020", which looks like this.
| Position 2020 | Cod | Country | Number of flights in 2020 | Position 2019 | 2020 vs. 2019 |
| 1 | ATL | Atlanta USA | 260 thousand | 2 | - 40% |
| 2 | Dfw | Dallas USA | 235 thousand | 3 | - 30% |
| 3 | ORD | Chicago USA | 234 thousand | 1 | - 46% |
| 4 | THE | Denver USA | 202 thousand | 5 | - 32% |
| 5 | CLT | Charlotte USA | 182 thousand | 7 | - 32% |
| 6 | CAN | Guangzhou CHINA | 165 thousand | 13 | - 28% |
| 7 | LAX | Los Angeles USA | 156 thousand | 4 | - 50% |
| 8 | CTU | Chengdu CHINA | 148 thousand | 37 | - 16% |
| 9 | SZX | Shenzhen CHINA | 139 thousand | 42 | - 16% |
| 10 | SEA | Seattle USA | 137 thousand | 18 | - 36% |
As can be seen, airports in the United States and China dominate this ranking. It is NOT surprising if we also look at the ranking by countries and airlines.
London Heathrow, which was the 9th busiest airport in 2019, is now ranked 31st, with the number of flights recorded falling by 61%.
In Europe, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport was the busiest airport, with air operations down 57% in 2020 compared to 2019. Globally, Amsterdam Airport ranks 27th.