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Busiest Airports in the United States

Can you name the cities that are served by the 35 busiest airports in the United States?
For 2021. Source.
Not including overseas territories.
City served is based on the name of the airport. You might have to guess multiple cities in the same metro area!
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: September 7, 2022
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First submittedOctober 24, 2011
Times taken101,902
Average score77.1%
Rating4.62
5:00
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#
City
75.7 m
Atlanta
62.5 m
Dallas (DFW)
58.8 m
Denver
54.0 m
Chicago (O'Hare)
48.0 m
Los Angeles
43.3 m
Charlotte
40.3 m
Orlando
39.8 m
Las Vegas
38.8 m
Phoenix
37.3 m
Miami
36.1 m
Seattle
31.9 m
Houston (George Bush)
#
City
30.8 m
New York (Kennedy)
29.0 m
Newark
28.1 m
Fort Lauderdale
24.4 m
Minneapolis
24.3 m
San Francisco
23.6 m
Detroit
22.7 m
Boston
22.4 m
Salt Lake City
19.6 m
Philadelphia
18.9 m
Baltimore
18.1 m
Tampa
15.9 m
Chicago (Midway)
#
City
15.6 m
San Diego
15.6 m
New York (LaGuardia)
15.6 m
Nashville
14.8 m
Washington (Dulles)
14.0 m
Washington (Reagan)
13.6 m
Austin
13.3 m
Dallas (Love Field)
12.2 m
Honolulu
11.8 m
Portland
10.8 m
Houston (Hobby)
10.4 m
St. Louis
+2
Level 82
Jan 12, 2014
Missed a few in the last column including Sacramento where I used to live (near). Kind of a sleepy little town but I guess the suburbs are fairly populous and the nearest major international airport would be SFO about 1-2 hours away.
+6
Level 71
Jun 23, 2016
Actually, about a fifth of these are state capitals. Atlanta, Denver, Boston, Austin, Phoenix, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Raleigh, Columbus, Salt Lake City, Nashville, Sacramento and arguably St. Paul (twin city of Minneapolis) are state capitals.
+6
Level 82
Jun 24, 2016
That still leaves 38 state capitals off the quiz.
+6
Level 74
May 1, 2017
Of which many don't have another airport in their state in the list either..
+1
Level 82
May 12, 2020
While many others do, and Sacramento is off the list now.
+4
Level 60
Sep 3, 2020
St Paul is the capital of Minnesota
+1
Level 76
Sep 10, 2022
true
+1
Level 23
Jul 23, 2020
I did too
+4
Level 66
Jun 23, 2016
Since I didn't pay attention to the answers being filled in as I was entering them, I assumed Newark would have been considered as serving the New York metro area.
+4
Level 82
Jun 23, 2016
I would have assumed the same about Oakland but I typed it in because in the directions it says you may have to enter multiple cities in the same metro area.
+1
Level 79
Jun 23, 2016
Except that SFO & OAK are two entirely different airports, both serving two entirely different cities.
+11
Level 82
Jun 24, 2016
Oh. So nobody in the San Francisco bay area ever uses OAK or vice versa? What are you talking about?? You think Newark, which is in a different state even, is less distinct from New York City metro area than Oakland is from San Francisco metro? Newark is twice as far from NYC as Oakland is from Frisco, and you have to go through Jersey City to get there.
+1
Level 82
Sep 8, 2020
When I made this last comment I'm pretty sure New York was an accepted type-in for Newark, while San Francisco was not accepted for Oakland. Now it seems as though you must type in both Newark and Oakland to get points.
+2
Level 82
Jun 21, 2022
^as a former resident of the SF Bay Area, I used both airports on various occasions.
+1
Level 8
Jun 23, 2016
Dudes I thought LAX would be top since I live in la county but its second? Atlanta, Georgia's not that big tho
+2
Level 74
Jun 25, 2016
Used to be O'Hare, here in Chicago
+28
Level 49
Jun 28, 2016
ATL is Delta's home airport. There used to be a saying that you couldn't go to hell without a layover in ATL.
+5
Level 63
Jun 28, 2016
I believe it's also a big Cargo Airport. Not sure if that is considered but other than it's the #1 airport worldwide when it comes to non-stop destinations: Offering more than 250.
+5
Level 48
Sep 12, 2017
Los Angeles greater area also has 4 airports with commercial service (2 make the list!). Atlanta has only one for an entire region.
+16
Level 44
Sep 9, 2019
Atlanta is in the top 10 metro areas in the country. Where did you get the idea that it's "not that big" when it has the busiest airport in the WORLD?
+1
Level 44
Nov 12, 2019
Flew in from Japan, tried to go to Miami to meet family for Thanksgiving. Had a 4 hour layover and still missed our flight because of customs and having to take trains across the airport.
+2
Level 76
Sep 8, 2020
Atlanta has the most international travel. It's hard to leave the eastern US to another country without having a layover in Atlanta
+1
Level 68
Apr 13, 2022
Georgia's bigger than you'd think. I live here and Atlanta is gigantic. Most people live in the suburbs, though.
+1
Level 67
Jul 30, 2016
Ontario, or Memphis didn't make it
+2
Level 84
Nov 5, 2019
I guessed Memphis as well. If you look at the source, the airports are ranked by passenger traffic. Since Memphis leans more heavily on air freight, they don't make the list. If the list were measuring all flights instead, it would probably be in the top 10.
+2
Level 42
Jul 26, 2020
I also guessed Memphis
+2
Level 75
Aug 22, 2020
Not enough singers are touching down in the land of the delta blues, apparently. Maybe the pouring rain scared them off.
+1
Level 40
Sep 23, 2022
Touche' and HA!
+2
Level 47
Sep 12, 2017
I'm somewhat surprised to see our airport (SLC) so high up the list.
+2
Level 86
Dec 23, 2017
SLC is the 4th-largest Delta hub, according to Wiki. Lots of connections through there for planes going from the east to the west (or vice versa). I remember changing places there flying from MSP to Honolulu on Delta (of course, we had to go through Atlanta first).
+3
Level 82
Jun 21, 2019
I'm one of the 1% who forgot New York.......lol
+3
Level 85
Nov 4, 2019
Baltimore's airport has Washington it its name.
+1
Level 69
Nov 5, 2019
So how did you make the decision to require a metro-area airport be answered under its own city – is it just by the name of the airport containing the city it serves? If so, I can see cpgatbyu’s point about BWI. (I assume you weren’t doing it by location, since a lot of airports aren’t even technically in the city they serve… although that could be a totally different – and very hard! – quiz!)
+1
Level 82
Nov 10, 2019
Only missed the last answer this time. Got San Francisco and tried Oakland again but didn't get San Jose.
+1
Level 73
Nov 10, 2019
Why are the proper names not accepted? or even the short names? I tried Ronald Reagan, Reagan but neither worked. I tried JFK...you would think the proper names would be acceptable answers. If all you were looking for was the metro /cities, there would have been no need to separate the NY answers or the DC answers. They should have been combined even if the title says busiest airports...the directions and title do NOT match
+13
Level 74
Nov 10, 2019
It says at the top,

"Can you name the cities that are served by the 35 busiest airports in the United States?"

+3
Level 75
Nov 11, 2019
I've been to a third of the airports I missed. Not sure how I forgot San Jose or Salt Lake - I got sick during landing at both of them. I don't do well flying over mountains and then suddenly swooping down. I also got sick when banking left an hour after leaving JFK, and I get seasick, too, and can't take the preventative meds. There's a reason we prefer to drive everywhere. If someone wants to make a quiz on the best gas station bathrooms or roadside picnic areas in the US, I'll ace it. :)
+1
Level 50
Dec 25, 2019
Fort Lauderdale????
+1
Level 62
Jan 25, 2020
It’s gorgeous
+2
Level 42
Jul 26, 2020
I prefer FLL instead of Miami
+3
Level 67
Sep 22, 2022
Fort Lauderdale is in the Miami Metropolitan Area. This quiz uses City Proper.
+2
Level 73
Mar 7, 2023
Doesn't surprise me. FLL is my local airport and millions of people in the Miami Metro area here prefer to fly out of it.
+1
Level 59
Aug 15, 2023
FLL is also my airport and doesn't surprise me for the same reason. People from not only Miami but also West Palm Beach and even from SW Florida (Naples/Ft Myers) go all the way to Ft Lauderdale to fly from FLL.

The airport is not all that big and too busy for its own good, it's torture sitting through the traffic that occurs during busy seasons.

I am however surprised that it surpassed all 3 DC-area airports, I guess in DC there are more options from each airport (unlike SW Florida and West Palm Beach where they have smaller airports and less flights).

+4
Level 51
Jan 1, 2020
I would recommend accepting IATA codes for responses.
+1
Level 42
Jul 26, 2020
It would take a while to make the quiz then. (TRUST ME, I've tried it!!!!!!!)
+1
Level 50
Jan 13, 2021
Was pretty surprised not to see Anchorage on here, but I suppose that's more of a cargo airport.
+1
Level 67
Feb 15, 2021
Anchorage has around 200k people I believe, while the majority of this list has cities with over 1mil.
+2
Level 45
Jul 4, 2021
uhhh the US only has 10 cities with a population over one million...

Anchorage's metro is quite big, but the airport is very seasonal

+1
Level 57
Nov 18, 2021
Anchorage has just over 300k actually, but yes 'nsg' is right its pretty seasonal, nobody flies there in winter.
+1
Level 68
Apr 13, 2022
Let's go! ATL #1 baby
+1
Level 88
Jun 22, 2022
Dear @Quizmaster, typing “Dallas” completes the "Dallas (DFW)” answer but not the "Dallas (Love Field)" answer. If that isn’t an oversight, would you kindly explain the rationale? Thank you.
+2
Level ∞
Jun 23, 2022
Just double-checked. Dallas completes both answers.
+1
Level 88
Jun 23, 2022
Thank you, once again, @Quizmaster, for your very prompt response. ’Twas user error, once again, I presume. 🙄
+1
Level 79
Sep 16, 2022
I whiffed initially on a few that probably should have been accepted. JFK, Logan, etc. Might be better to call the quiz "cities with busiest airports". For an airport quiz I would think accepting the 3-letter IAFA codes should work too!
+1
Level 60
Sep 22, 2022
I got screwed when I submitted "NYC" and was given JFK and LaGuardia, and didn't think of the region again, leaving Newark as the only one I didn't get out of 35. I understand it's not in New York State, but it is 100% there to serve the City. Just tricky I guess. Maybe accept airport names too. LAX, JFK, etc. not being acceptable answers in the "Busiest Airports in the US" quiz is suspect...
+2
Level 32
Sep 22, 2022
St. Paul should definitely work as an answer for MSP, I mean it's literally the "Minneapolis-Saint Paul" airport.
+1
Level 67
Jul 4, 2023
Came here to comment the same thing! I looked it up and apparently the airport isn't technically in Minneapolis; its in an unorganized territory called Fort Snelling!
+1
Level 82
Sep 22, 2022
Washington DC should work for BWI, since it's "Baltimore-Washington International Airport". Washington is in the name, so it should be accepted by the rules of the quiz.
+2
Level 82
Sep 22, 2022
Washington is more distinct from Baltimore than Newark is from New York.
+1
Level 75
Sep 23, 2022
Can I ask why typing "Dulles" doesn't give you "Washington (Dulles)"? I've heard of Dulles but didn't know it was in Washington, and I only got it after changing strategy to just typing big US cities rather than trying to think of airport names...
+1
Level 66
Sep 24, 2022
"Dulles" isn't a city. The quiz explicitly requests that the user names the cities that the airports serve.
+1
Level 75
Sep 25, 2022
Fair enough. When the title of the quiz and the instructions are mismatched I often lose out for not bothering to read the instructions.

Pretty much just another "cities of the USA" quiz then.

+1
Level 82
Sep 25, 2022
Dulles is a city, by American reckoning, there are buildings that write "Dulles" in the space for city on their address labels. Technically it is an unincorporated area of Loudon County, close to the larger city of Herndon, somewhat far-flung out into the suburbs of the greater Washington DC metropolitan area, about a 40 minute drive from the center of Washington on the Virginia side. But the instructions indicate that you should write the cities served by these airports... the major city served by Dulles is Washington, even if the airport was built a good ways away.
+2
Level 55
Dec 6, 2022
No question about why nobody is going to Ohio
+3
Level 75
Apr 26, 2023
only in ohio 💀
+1
Level 64
Dec 14, 2022
Accept JFK for Kennedy, it's what we refer it as in the NYC area. Actually, just update everything so the type-in name is accepted for that one airport, would make life easier.
+1
Level 75
Apr 26, 2023
how is fort lauderdale that busy and why do they not just use miami airport
+1
Level 36
Nov 15, 2023
should take laguardia and jfk as answers
+1
Level 64
Feb 2, 2024
Only got Fort Lauderdale because I actually went there lol