And the world’s busiest airport is … | CNN

ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

It was a regular day at the world's busiest airport, complete with the messes and victories of everyday life. On August 28, 2013, CNN spent 24 hours at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. See everything we found at CNN.com/ATL24.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Passengers wait for flights in the International Terminal.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

The interior of a cargo plane is barren as it awaits loading at the airport's UPS facility.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Friends and family wait for Holly Houston in the arrivals lobby of the Domestic Terminal.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

People ride an escalator near Concourse E.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Shannon Nevin, 4, waits with her family at gate A21 for a flight to Savannah, Georgia.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

A view out the window on the upper level of Concourse D.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

A server at One Flew South heads to the kitchen.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Tiffanie Barriere serves a drink behind the bar at One Flew South on Concourse E.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

People pass through the Domestic Terminal atrium.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Sgt. Vito Wallace exits the elevator and heads into the Domestic Terminal atrium.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Mi Ja Choi sits in the atrium of the Domestic Terminal. Police say they don't know how she was injured. Repeated attempts to follow up with her or her family have been unsuccessful.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Medic 3 -- a 10-year-old ambulance -- sits outside Fire Station 32, next to the tarmac near Concourse A.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Passengers are reflected in the ceiling of the Domestic Terminal atrium.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

A MAC Cosmetics trainee applies makeup to employee Ashley White.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Jodi Ferrill and her five children wait for a connecting flight to Denver.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

A corkboard full of military patches and souvenirs is mounted to the wall of a Starbucks near a security checkpoint. Employees say troops who come through the airport offer the patches as a way of saying thanks, since the coffee shop won't let them pay.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

William Talton cleans the baggage carousels.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

A floor cleaner's power cable crosses the carpet.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

A beagle named Vince helps customs officers with inspections.

Mark Hill/CNN

ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Customs officers check the serial numbers of weapons that arrived on a flight from Johannesburg. It's hunting season in South Africa.

Mark Hill/CNN

ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Officer Michael Payne, known as Goob, is a member of the Atlanta Police Department's Bomb Tech Squad.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Pipes, cables and pumps line the interior of a wheel well on a Southwest Airlines plane.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Delta First Officer Michael Maier does an external inspection of a Delta 777 plane.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

The air traffic control tower offers a 360-degree view of the runways.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Inside the Federal Aviation Administration's Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, Ken Hunihan monitors the systems that air traffic controllers use, including radar antennas and communication towers.

Edythe McNamee/CNN

ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Packages are sorted at the FedEx cargo facility.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

A FedEx worker moves containers full of packages at the cargo facility.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Airport employees take part in the annual Foreign Object Debris, or FOD, removal walk.

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ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport —

Passengers take the escalator to ground transportation and baggage claim.

Kendrick Brinson for CNN

ATL24: Inside the world's busiest airport

Story highlights

The busiest airport in the world saw fewer passengers last year than in 2012

Beijing's airport saw an increase in passengers in 2013

Dubai's airport jumped three spots to finish in seventh place

CNN —

Atlanta’s airport is still the busiest passenger airport in the world, but Beijing’s airport is closing the gap.

More than 94 million passengers went through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 2013, a decrease of 1.1% over the previous year, according to Airports Council International’s preliminary passenger traffic results for 2013.

Beijing Capital International Airport came in second place and is continuing to close the gap with Atlanta, reporting nearly 84 million passengers last year. That’s an increase of 2.2% over 2012.

London’s Heathrow Airport remained in third place with more than 72 million passengers, an increase of 3.3%, according to Airports Council International, the worldwide association of airports.

There were no changes to fourth, fifth and sixth places. They remained Tokyo International Airport (Haneda), Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport. With 66.4 million passengers last year and a 15% increase in traffic, Dubai jumped from 10th place to seventh place.

“With double-digit growth rates in passenger traffic for 2013, Dubai is likely to move up several spots again in the 2014 rankings, solidifying its status as the major hub connecting the east and west,” ACI World’s Economics Director Rafael Echevarne said in a press release.

“Aviation’s nucleus appears to be moving eastward,” he said. “Other emerging markets such as Turkey, China and South East Asia that have a critical mass of traffic also remain major contributors to the upward surge in air transport demand. This trend will continue into 2014.”

Paris dropped from seventh to eighth place, Dallas/Fort Worth remained in ninth place and Jakarta dropped to 10th place.

Behind the scenes at the world’s busiest airport

Passenger traffic continued to grow around the world, with the world’s airports serving nearly 5.4 billion passengers in 2013, growing by 4% from 2012, according to the report.

Atlanta’s airport still topped the rankings in airplane movements (takeoffs and landings), with 911,000 movements last year. Chicago O’Hare International Airport came in second place with 883,000 movements and Dallas/Fort Worth was third with 678,000. Rounding out that list were Los Angeles International Airport, Denver, Beijing, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Houston and Paris.

Hong Kong’s airport is still the busiest cargo airport in the world, transporting nearly 4.2 million metric tons of cargo last year. Memphis, Tennessee, home to FedEx, came in second place with 4.1 million metric tons and Shanghai was third with 2.9 million metric tons. (One metric ton equals 2,205 pounds.)

Rounding out the top 10 were cargo airports in Incheon, South Korea; Dubai; Anchorage, Alaska; Louisville, Kentucky; Frankfurt, Germany; Paris; and Tokyo (Narita).

The Airports Council International preliminary traffic report was based on reports from over 1,105 airports worldwide. A final version will be released later in the year.