The wind in the UK is fairly constant east-west, thus there is no need to construct runways in other directions. The only reason to construct extra runways, is for the case where the capacity of the current runway system is insufficient.
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport remains the busiest airport in the world with 5.2 million seats in September 2023. The composition of the Global Top 10 Busiest Airports is also the same as last month but there are a few changes to the rankings.
1. King Fahd International Airport – 299 Square Miles. King Fahd Airport is the largest airport in the world. Located in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, the King Fahd International Airport is nearly 300 square miles and is the largest airport in the world.
Shigatse Peace Airport, China (runway length: 5,000m)Shigatse Peace Airport (RKZ), a dual-use military and civilian airport in Shigatse, Tibet hosts the longest runway in the world. The new runway (09/27) stretches 5,000m (16,404 ft) long with a 60-meter asphalt overrun at each end.
Irausquin Airport (IATA: SAB, ICAO: TNCS) is an airport on the Dutch Caribbean island of Saba. Its runway is widely acknowledged as the shortest commercial runway in the world, with a length of 400 m (1,312 ft).
Denver International AirportSituated in Denver, Colorado, USA, Denver International Airport covers an area of 135.69 square kilometres, making it the second-largest airport in the world.
1. King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Saudia Arabia (DMM)—300 square miles. Despite its massive size, on the civilian side, King Fahd International Airport, with 10 million passengers annually, is a much smaller player; the other main Saudi Arabia airports, in Riyadh and Jeddah, outrank it in passenger traffic.
In terms of overall size, the King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest airport by an overwhelming margin. Taking up nearly 300 square miles, this former United States airbase very nearly matches the area of all five boroughs of New York City put together (302.6 mi2).
The Atlanta airport is also the No. 1 busiest airport in the world. In 2022, 45.4 million passengers boarded commercial aircraft in Atlanta, according to the FAA. That was a nearly 24 percent increase over the 36.7 million enplanements in Atlanta in 2021.
Heathrow is larger and has better links in and out of the airport to Central London. Heathrow has five terminals and four runways. Meanwhile, Gatwick has two terminals and two runways. Heathrow is nearer to Central London.
RAF Brize Norton has the longest runway at 3050 metres. MOD Boscombe Down which is a tri-service establishment has three hard surface runways and two grass strips. Its longest runway is 3233 metres long.