South Korea's Incheon Airport has topped the global ranking for international passenger traffic for the first time, surpassing London's Heathrow, according to infohub.kz.
Preliminary data from the Airports Council International shows that Incheon handled 38.39 million international passengers in the first six months of 2026, securing the top spot. Heathrow came in second with 37.79 million, while Singapore's Changi ranked third.
Incheon's passenger traffic grew by 6.3% year-on-year, driven by a significant surge in transit travelers, whose numbers rose by 18.1% to 4.24 million. Experts attribute this growth to the rerouting of some European and Asian flights away from Middle Eastern hubs, as well as an increase in tourism from China and Japan.
Airport officials said the record results were made possible by the completion of the fourth phase of infrastructure expansion, which boosted the complex's capacity to 106 million passengers per year. Incheon currently connects 183 cities in 53 countries.