Today's fact is one of those great examples of realising that something I thought was true is in fact quite the opposite. I'm even throwing it out there. What's the busiest airport in the world? As far as I was concerned, it was Heathrow - and watching the planes cruising in every 30 seconds over South West London, it seems hard to argue otherwise. However, I am mistaken:
Atlanta's Hartsfield airport is the busiest in the world.
That's right, a place that nobody seems to have any inclination to go to receives close to 85 million visitors a year (as of 2006). Either it's got an unbelievable duty free store, or a lot of connecting flights pitch up there. Heathrow only finishes in 3rd place, also behind Chicago's O'Hare airport. The top ten also features Tokyo, Beijing, Dallas, Denver, Frankfurt, Paris and LA. Surprisingly, New York's JFK is only 15th. The departure lounge must be rubbish.
Of course, I'm not much of an expert, having only ever been to 3 airports. They are, in order of preference - Riga: a compact, laminate-floored delight; Krakow: cavernous but efficient, and complete with burly, yet surprisingly approachable, soldiers on security; and finally Stansted, a clean, modern, bustling airport that appears to be run by a room full of chimps with a pile of flight itineraries in front of them. Prior to the smoking ban, upon arriving home from abroad, we were greeted by a sign that read "No Smoking Allowed (except in smoking area)" - a swift reminder of how bloody stupid this country can be.
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