Federal Aviation Administration/Airlines&Airplanes

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World's busiest airports

Data: OAG; Map: Axios Visuals Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport remains the world's busiest airfield, per the latest tally from travel data giant OAG. 💺 ATL offered 63.1 million seats for domestic and international travelers in 2025, with capacity up 1% from 2024 — and back to pre-pandemic levels. The next three: Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates (62.4 million seats), Tokyo Haneda (55.4 million) and London Heathrow (52.1 million). 🛩️ Zoom in: Denver International's capacity has grown nearly 25% since 2019, making it the fastest-growing airport in the top 10 over that period. 🌎 Looking solely at international capacity, the winners are Dubai (62.4 million seats), Heathrow (49 million) and Seoul's Incheon International Airport in South Korea (43 million). OAG chief analyst John Grant said: "Dubai's continued expansion and Istanbul's rise as a global hub demonstrate how airline networks are evolving, while the resilience of large domestic markets continues to underpin global capacity." See the data.

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• ✈️ Houston Hobby Airport's latest recommendation is for travelers to arrive three to four hours before their flight, as TSA delays tied to the partial government shutdown drag into their third day. Delays have also been reported in Atlanta and New Orleans. More from Axios Houston.

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Airfares take off

Long screening lines at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday due to screener shortages and bad weather. Photo: Megan Varner/Getty Images The Iran war is creating big travel headaches on top of an already chaotic situation at U.S. airports, Axios' Emily Peck reports. Jet fuel prices are up about 60% this month, largely because the war is disrupting key refining infrastructure. Some airlines are already raising fares — and warning that high prices could stick around. 💼 At the same time, airport security lines have grown comically long amid a partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA. Acting deputy TSA administrator Adam Stahl told CBS News that some airports could even be shut down as screeners go without pay and call out sick: "This is a serious situation." 📝 Kent Fung, vice president at Fundstrat Global Advisors, wrote in a note yesterday: "The cynical might assert that air travelers have gotten used to taking abuse, so they'll begrudgingly put up with even more." "But the proverbial camel's back gets broken with a single straw, and what's happening in the Persian Gulf is quite a heavy straw indeed." Data: Financial Modeling Prep. Chart: Axios Visuals The situation could eventually mark a travel breaking point — akin to what happened during the oil crisis of the 1970s, Fung writes. Back then, high gas prices and long lines at the pump changed Americans' fuel consumption. They started buying smaller, fuel-efficient Japanese cars and tried to conserve energy. Companies also tried to become more fuel-efficient. ✈️ If the travel sector's woes deepen, it could make similar changes. Airlines are already investing in more efficient aircraft and sustainable fuel. But the global aviation industry still burns around 100 billion gallons of standard jet fuel annually. Go deeper.

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New Radar Rules

The Federal Aviation Administration issued new rules yesterday mandating air traffic controllers use radar technology to separate helicopters and airplanes. The guidelines impact more than 150 airports, and come after last year’s deadly midair collision near Washington, DC. Sixty-seven people were killed when an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided near Ronald Reagan Airport in January 2025 (see animation, w/video). It marked the US' deadliest plane crash since November 2001. The FAA found near misses are common, including as recently as this month, when a small aircraft was mistakenly cleared to land at Hollywood Burbank Airport in California, forcing a helicopter to swerve. (A similar incident happened in San Antonio, Texas, last month). The FAA says visual checks are insufficient to ensure a safe distance between aircraft. Separately, the TSA administrator warned yesterday that at least 10% of agents have called out sick after missing paychecks amid the partial government shutdown; track airport wait times here.

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What to know about the deadly collision between a jet and fire truck at NYC’s LaGuardia Airport

NEW YORK (AP) — A jet landing at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport collided with a fire truck on the runway, killing the pilot and copilot and injuring several others. Here’s what you need to know:

https://apnews.com/article/new-york-laguardia-airport-air-canada-collision-0ccd13417d56c43349510b92461a98b6?

Air travel avalanche

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

Skyrocketing prices, sprawling security lines and safety fears after a fatal incident are fueling a spring of air travel hell, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick reports. ✈️ The partial government shutdown, which has left TSA officers working without pay, is colliding with an oil price spike driven by the Iran war. 😣 That means travelers face massive delays — and higher airfares. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in a Friday statement that jet fuel prices "more than doubled in the last three weeks." TSA screeners are calling out en masse. Hundreds have left the job altogether, presumably to find paid work. 🧮 By the numbers: More than 3,450 TSA officers called out yesterday, per DHS. Call-out rates at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport topped 40%. Erik Hansen, head of government relations at the U.S. Travel Association, tells Axios that it "surely looks like we're either at or very near the breaking point for air travel." The security line at New York's LaGuardia Airport today. Photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images 🧊 To top it off, the arrival of ICE agents at hard-hit airports today, and last night's runway crash at New York's LaGuardia Airport, could fuel travelers' safety fears. 🥊 The union representing TSA officers swiftly condemned President Trump's plan to send ICE to airports, contending that placing "untrained personnel at security checkpoints does not fill a gap. It creates one." 🚘 The bottom line: Perhaps it's road trip season — if you can afford to fill up. Go deeper ... More on ICE at airports.

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Seconds before LaGuardia crash, controller cleared the fire truck to cross the runway, NTSB says

NEW YORK (AP) — One of only two air traffic controllers on duty at LaGuardia Airport cleared a fire truck to cross a runway just 12 seconds before an Air Canada flight touched down, leaving little time to avoid the collision that killed both pilots, federal investigators said Tuesday.

https://apnews.com/article/laguardia-plane-crash-new-york-investigation-ntsb-33073747e410c8d7bceab0ebc347d35f?

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😳 1 for the road: Airports fear morning rush

The line at a TSA checkpoint at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport last week. Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images Some airports across America are warning travelers that arriving too early for their flights is contributing to those eye-popping lines at TSA checkpoints, The Washington Post reports. Austin and Columbus airports are both explicitly telling travelers to avoid showing up early, especially ahead of morning flights. The Columbus airport said 90 minutes before departure is the "sweet spot": "Showing up too early creates those first-wave lines." 🚙 Scott Keyes, founder of the cheap-flight alert service Going, told The Post: "It's almost like rush-hour traffic." Keep reading (gift link).

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💰 Massive merger watch

Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios

Bombshell Bloomberg report: United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby is pitching a megadeal to merge with American Airlines and create the world's largest airline. Kirby floated the idea "to senior government officials, though it's unclear if any overtures have since been made or if an actual process is underway to explore a deal." 💣 Antitrust minefield: Even under a business-friendly Trump administration, a deal this size would invite heavy regulatory scrutiny and potential consumer backlash. Keep reading (gift link).

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⛈️ Airline industry shakeup

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Seismic turbulence is hitting U.S. airlines: Rising fuel and labor costs are squeezing carriers — and pushing higher fares and fees onto travelers already facing economic uncertainty, Axios' Nathan Bomey writes. The big picture: Airlines are entering a shakeout — with consolidation talk rising, the winner-loser divide widening, and profit decisions raising fees. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby floated a mega-merger with American Airlines. American yesterday rejected the notion, saying it's "not engaged with or interested in any discussions regarding a merger with United Airlines." Spirit Airlines may be on the verge of liquidation, according to multiple reports, after filing for its second bankruptcy in less than a year in November. Southwest recently cut routes, and other airlines are trimming less-profitable service. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said Tuesday that the carrier must "find ways" to pass along the extra costs of jet fuel to consumers. 🛢️ The throughline, from the healthiest carriers to the stragglers, is the spike in jet fuel prices since the Iran war began. If fuel prices remain high, the industry could shift "from growth to survival mode," Brandon Parsons, economist at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, tells Axios in an email.

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Spirit Airlines Shutters

Spirit Airlines shut down over the weekend after failing to secure a $500M rescue package, officially ceasing operations around 3 am ET Saturday morning. Weekend travelers were told not to go to the airport, and the decision leaves around 17,000 employees out of work.  Launched as a commercial passenger service in 1992, Spirit grew into the seventh-largest airline in the US, shuttling 44 million travelers annually. Known for pioneering ultra-low-fare pricing with numerous added fees in the US, including becoming the first carrier in the country to charge for carry-on bags (in 2010). Spirit experienced a series of failed and blocked mergers and bankruptcy filings following the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials cited soaring jet fuel costs—which account for close to 30% of airline costs and have roughly doubled since the war in Iran (see chart)—as a final insurmountable challenge.  Watch a Spirit ad from the late '90s pitching its low fares (and its memorably catchy jingle).

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What grounded Spirit

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios Spirit Airlines is dead, but the finger-pointing is very much alive, Axios' Dan Primack writes. Trump administration officials are blaming former President Biden, whose Justice Department blocked JetBlue from buying Spirit for $3.8 billion. Spirit told the White House to look in the mirror, saying its insolvency was sparked by spiking jet fuel prices amid the Iran war. Those are both legitimate arguments. But they aren't mutually exclusive. It's hard to claim that keeping JetBlue and Spirit apart has preserved low-cost competition when Spirit planes are now parked like yellow school buses at midnight. It's also true that jet fuel prices were the straw that broke Spirit's back. ⛽️ Yet there were other contributing factors: Spirit didn't sufficiently hedge its jet fuel costs. That speaks to poor management, or maybe to being over-leveraged. Ongoing issues with Pratt & Whitney engines caused Spirit to ground a bunch of planes, creating significant losses. Spirit bailed on a merger agreement with Frontier in order to pursue the JetBlue tie-up. It's possible Biden's DOJ would have let Spirit merge with Frontier, which was significantly smaller than JetBlue. 💸 The bottom line: It's impossible to know if a JetBlue-Spirit merger would have saved Spirit — or saddled the combined carrier with so much debt that it too would be liquidating as jet fuel prices climb. Go deeper ... ps:He'll always blame everybody else, as do the previous presidents!! But personally I believe neither one is to blame!!

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Runway fatality

Denver International Airport is conducting a safety analysis after a person who jumped over a fence onto a runway was struck and killed by a Frontier plane during takeoff on Friday. The fatal incident has highlighted the difficulty of securing a facility twice the size of Manhattan. Read more.

WATCH: 'Felt like an explosion' from inside Frontier flight

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Summer travelers who relied on Spirit Airlines may struggle to find budget alternatives

The collapse of Spirit Airlines isn't the only curveball confronting people planning summer trips. Rising jet fuel costs tied to the Iran war have pushed up airfares and associated fees across the industry. Two of the remaining U.S. budget carriers just finalized a merger. The developments illustrate how difficult it's gotten for low-cost airlines to operate while squeezed by jet fuel prices, changing consumer preferences and competition. Read more.