New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport moved six notches higher to debut in the list of 20 busiest airport globally, booting out John F Kennedy International Airport of New York.

The Airport Council International's (ACI) preliminary report on airport traffic for 2017 released on Monday states "IGI, the country's busiest airport for passenger traffic, grew by 14.1% year over year, pushing it up from the 22nd to the 16th busiest airport in the world". The report also adds that of the 20 busiest airports globally, IGI airport is also the fastest-growing with increase in traffic at the rate of 14.1% year-on-year.

Others that follow IGI airport in terms of growth include Guangzhou airport of China with growth at 10.3% and Jakarta airport of Indonesia recording growth at 8.3%.

In the list, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport in the United States secured the topmost position with a passenger base of 104 million flyers. Beijing held the second spot followed by Dubai.

As per the Montreal-based ACI report, the centre of gravity of the aviation market is slowly shifting eastward and by 2020, India and China will feature among the best three air-travel markets due to rising incomes that render air-fares affordable for the citizens in the two nations.

In the list of the fastest-growing airports globally, airports of Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai made their way and reported growth of 26.9%, 19.6%, 12.9% and 10.5% respectively in 2017 on a year-on-year basis.

Early in this year, Airport Council International ranked New Delhi's IGI airport as the leading airport managing a passenger base of over 40 million per year. At the same time, it accoladed Chhatrapati Shivaji of Mumbai as the best airport internationally in customer experience.

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