A giant airport can generally really feel like a teeming metropolis—or an “aerotropolis” because it had been, a time period coined to explain these rising mega-airport-cum-commerce facilities. In reality, the most important U.S. airfields, when it comes to space coated, are actually as massive as a decent-sized metropolis. And, similar to any main metropolis, in addition they appear to be in a relentless state of demolition and reconstruction, with sprawling new terminals being erected to accommodate an ever-growing inhabitants of vacationers. Final 12 months, U.S. airports dealt with greater than 1 billion passengers flying on U.S. and worldwide carriers, in line with the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and the quantity is predicted to solely proceed to rise within the coming years.
So, what are the largest U.S. airports when it comes to land mass? Apparently, they’re not essentially the busiest; in actual fact Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Worldwide Airport, which handles extra passengers yearly than some other airport on the planet, isn’t even within the high 10 in terms of sheer dimension. Right here, is the rating primarily based on the airports’ personal printed dimensions and native authorities information.
1. Denver Worldwide Airport (DEN): 53 sq. miles
Denver Worldwide Airport is the second largest airport on the planet after the humongous King Fahd Airport in Saudi Arabia—it’s so enormous that it’s greater than double the scale of the subsequent largest U.S. airport, Dallas Fort Value. At 53 sq. miles, it’s bigger than the cities of San Francisco, Boston, and Miami. And that’s no accident. Within the Nineties, when town of Denver selected to scrap its close-in however outmoded airport Stapleton, it opted to construct the alternative airfield on a website that was 25 miles from downtown. The additional respiration room allowed it to construct six runways, and the Denver hub just lately accomplished a terminal growth that added 39 new gates, bringing the entire variety of gates throughout the airport’s three terminals to 90 (a 30 % improve over its earlier capability). The airport solely takes up a fraction of the huge area it owns, and given all that further sq. footage, it gives some ways to expertise the outside, together with an 82,000-square-foot out of doors plaza that’s open to vacationers in addition to to most of the people. Its terminals additionally boast three out of doors decks, post-security, with views of the Colorado plains within the distance.
2. Dallas Fort Value Worldwide Airport (DFW): 26 sq. miles
The phrase “the whole lot is greater in Texas” doesn’t simply confer with massive hats and large hair—it might additionally describe its super-sized airports: The Lone Star state is house to 2 of the largest U.S. airports. And because the house base of the world’s largest provider, American Airways, Dallas Fort Value Worldwide Airport occupies a footprint that’s greater than the island of Manhattan; it even has its personal zip code, plus 5 terminals with a complete of 168 gates. Measurement doesn’t forestall it from being a mannequin for sustainability, with plans for a zero-carbon electrical plant that can assist it obtain net-zero emissions by 2030. With seven operational runways, the airport is ready to deal with greater than 73 million fliers a 12 months, who little doubt admire DFW’s big selection of meals selections and the alternatives to work it off with an inside strolling path and yoga studio.
3. Southwest Florida Worldwide Airport (RSW): 21.2 sq. miles
Whereas not massive in passenger numbers—it dealt with simply over 10 million fliers final 12 months—Southwest Florida Worldwide Airport in Fort Myers is nonetheless the third greatest airport within the U.S. in space. Effectively positioned because the gateway to Florida’s southwest area, it serves such locations because the Cape Coral–Fort Myers space, in addition to Naples, Marco Island, and Punta Gorda. What’s the explanation behind the large footprint? It’s not for future improvement, however for land conservation. Some 6,000 acres of its whole space have been designated as protected swamp lands. However the airport itself isn’t sitting nonetheless; an ongoing terminal growth is because of be accomplished in early 2025.
4. Orlando Worldwide Airport (MCO): 20.7 sq. miles
Positioned six miles from downtown Orlando, this airport is the primary worldwide gateway for central Florida and its world-famous theme parks. And because the seventh busiest airport within the nation, Orlando Worldwide Airport now has 850 day by day flights on 44 airways, bringing hordes of vacationers from the U.S. and overseas to expertise this fashionable family-friendly resort city. Final 12 months, MCO dealt with practically 58 million passengers, a document for the airport and a 15 % improve over the earlier 12 months. The airport just lately opened the brand new $2.8 billion Terminal C and Florida’s new non-public high-speed rail line Brightline has unveiled a station on the airport.
5. Washington Dulles Worldwide Airport (IAD): 18.7 sq. miles
When Dulles airport opened in a rural space of Northern Virginia within the early Sixties, its expansive property was seen as a downside; situated 30 miles from the capital, Beltway insiders regarded it as one thing of a white elephant, regardless of its hanging Eero Saarinen–designed terminal. Now, it’s a budding aerotropolis with numerous know-how corporations and protection contractors close by. A serious hub for United Airways, the airport has flights to 57 worldwide and 86 home locations. Whereas it will possibly nonetheless take practically an hour to drive there from the district, a Metro line growth now gives a public transit various.
6. George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH):17.1 sq. miles
Within the late Nineteen Fifties, when Houston civic leaders bought land for a brand new airport, they had been already pondering massive—and within the ensuing many years its actual property was expanded to its current dimension. George Bush Intercontinental Airport Houston now options 5 runways that may deal with a excessive variety of long-distance flights to Latin America and past, with Houston serving as a major hub for United Airways. In early 2025, the airport is slated to open a brand new worldwide terminal between terminals D and E, which will likely be wanted because the airport dealt with a document 46 million fliers final 12 months.
7. Salt Lake Metropolis Worldwide Airport (SLC):12 sq. miles
Salt Lake Metropolis Worldwide Airport, a significant hub for Delta Air Traces, can rightfully boast that it’s the “first U.S. hub airport constructed within the 21st century,” with a brand new advanced that opened in 2020 to switch a woefully out-of-date 60-year-old facility. The primary section of the $4 billion undertaking bought excessive marks from fliers for its fashionable design, a spacious format, and artwork installations impressed by the state’s distinctive topography. The airport has just lately seen an uptick in worldwide site visitors with nonstop service to overseas locations like Amsterdam, London; and Paris; it’s now serving greater than 26 million passengers a 12 months and can have the ability to deal with as much as 34 million when the ultimate section of its new terminal opens in 2026.
8. Chicago O’Hare Worldwide Airport (ORD):11.25 sq. miles
Chicago’s major airport is so busy that it has at instances come near toppling Atlanta’s document for numbers of passengers carried, with practically 74 million passengers transiting the gateway in 2023, most of them flying on ORD’s two dominant airways, American and United (the latter relies within the Windy Metropolis). In sheer dimension the airport isn’t any slouch both; there are 202 gates at O’Hare and eight runways, believed to be essentially the most runways of any industrial airport on the planet. The airport just lately launched into an enormous, $8.5 billion terminal modernization program, as a result of be accomplished in 2028.
9. San Francisco Worldwide Airport (SFO): 8.14 sq. miles
With 50 million whole passengers in 2023, San Francisco Worldwide Airport is a significant gateway for journey to the Asia Pacific area, so it’s no shock that it boasts the nation’s largest worldwide terminal at 1.8 million sq. toes, together with a large customs facility that may course of 5,000 arrivals an hour. At SFO, fliers also can take pleasure in a number of out of doors areas, together with a brand new Sky Terrace earlier than safety at Terminal 2 with 180-degree views of the airfield from an commentary space, and a gallery with displays on the airport’s historical past. Befitting its location, the airport is earthquake resistant, able to withstanding a magnitude 8 quake (the final main one to hit the world was 6.9 on the Richter scale.)
10. John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK): 8.1 sq. miles
New York Metropolis’s JFK airport has come a good distance because it opened in 1948 as Idlewild Airport on the location of a former golf course; after it was renamed in honor of the late President Kennedy in 1963, it was the worldwide gateway to the U.S. Again then it took benefit of its ample land space to create out of doors plazas with fountains and landscaped parks, which had been ultimately paved over in favor of extra roadways and terminals. It’s now present process one more huge overhaul that—with the good thing about hindsight—will create a greater, greener airport. And it’ll additionally significantly improve the airport’s indoor area; with 62 million passengers a 12 months, arriving on 90 airways, JFK nonetheless reigns because the busiest within the U.S. for worldwide site visitors.
