Terminal 1 of Incheon International Airport / Courtesy of Incheon International Airport

Incheon International Airport, the main gateway to Korea, became the world's second-busiest cargo airport in 2021, up one notch from the previous year, a trade body said Monday.

The airport handled 3.23 million tons of international cargo, up 18.6 percent from 2020, according to the Airports Council International (ACI).

Some 40 kilometers west of Seoul, Incheon ranked third in the world in terms of international cargo handling in 2019 and 2020.

Hong Kong International Airport on Chek Lap Kok Island retained its top spot by processing 4.98 million tons last year, up 12.8 percent from the previous year.

Shanghai Pudong International Airport dropped one notch to third over the cited period, followed by Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Narita International Airport in Japan.

Meanwhile, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was the busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic in 2021, with 75.7 million people using it.

Dubai International Airport handled the largest international passenger traffic at 29.11 million last year, up 12.7 percent from a year earlier and retaining the No. 1 status.

Global passenger traffic came to 4.5 billion last year, up 25 percent from the previous year but about half the 2019 level before the outbreak of COVID-19, according to the ACI. (Yonhap)