SEOUL — South Korea’s Incheon International Airport became the world’s busiest airport by international passenger traffic for the first time, according to preliminary data from the Airports Council International.Incheon handled 38.4 million international passengers in the first six months of the year, ahead of London’s Heathrow with 37.79 million and Singapore’s Changi with 34.53 million.The airport attributed the rise partly to passengers shifting from Middle Eastern aviation hubs amid the conflict between the United States and Iran. Transfer passengers at Incheon rose 18% year-on-year, while those bound for Europe increased 63.2% to 210,000.Dubai International Airport, which ranked second both in 2024 and 2025 based on full-year statistics, is expected to fall outside the top five this time.London's Heathrow airport ranked fifth in 2024 and seventh in 2025, while Incheon ranked 12th and 13th, respectively.Some passengers who previously transited through Dubai on the way to Europe are now travelling via Incheon, the airport corporation said, fuelling an 18% rise in transfer passengers.The corporation said the expansion of infrastructure also enabled the airport to manage a larger traffic load. Incheon, which opened in 2001, serves 158 international destinations.In comparison, Hong Kong's International Airport serves 139 destinations, Shanghai's Pudong serves 92 while Tokyo's Narita serves 86."We're grateful for the [South Korean] government's support, the public's encouragement and the hard work of everyone stationed at the airport in making Incheon the world's No. 1 airport," said the Incheon airport corporation's acting president Kim Beom-ho.Kim added the corporation planned to strengthen competitiveness by focusing on passenger convenience.