In 2007 Zurich airport handled 20.74 million passengers – an increase of 7.8 per cent on 2006.

The number of transit passengers increased by 14.3 per cent to seven million over the same period, consolidating Zurich's position as a hub.

Swiss International Air Lines notched up the largest passenger increase of 11.6 per cent, followed by Air Berlin, Emirates and Basel-based charter airline Hello.

There was a total of 268,476 flight movements at Zurich, Switzerland's largest airport, in 2007 – 735 a day. This was up 2.9 per cent on 2006.

Over the same period the amount of cargo transported increased by three per cent to 373,400 tonnes.

By contrast, Atlanta airport, the world's busiest when measuring passenger numbers, handled just under 85 million travellers in 2006.

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