OREANDA-NEWS. Charlotte Douglas International Airport remains eighth nationwide in passenger traffic, according to recently released 2014 preliminary Airports Council International (ACI) rankings based on 1,095 airports worldwide.

CLT, however, moved one spot from 23rd in 2013 to 24th in worldwide passenger traffic rankings in 2014. Last year, 44.3 million passengers visited Charlotte Douglas, the largest in Airport history. It was a 2 percent jump from 43.5 million passengers in 2013.

International traffic held a key role in that growth. It rose 4 percent from 2.8 million passengers traveling abroad in 2013 to 2.9 million in 2014.

"We pride ourselves at CLT on being a premiere airport not only in this country, but in the world," said Interim Aviation Director Brent Cagle. "As we continue to grow, our goal is to provide our passengers a first-rate facility, excellent customer service and flights to destinations throughout the world."

CLT continues to play an important role in Oneworld, an airline alliance whose member airlines include American Airlines, British Airways, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Iberia and Qatar Airways. Charlotte Douglas is one of the alliance's largest East Coast gateways to Europe providing customers access to 100 plus destinations in North America with one-stop connections through the hub. This May - October, Charlotte Douglas will offer 68 weekly transatlantic flights and more than 200 weekly flights to the Caribbean.

Charlotte Douglas also maintained its positions as the sixth busiest airport nationwide and seventh busiest worldwide in operations despite a 2 percent decrease in landings and departures from 2013 due to the airline trend toward using larger, more fuel efficient aircraft. Last year, CLT oversaw 545,178 aircraft movements and averaged 696 daily departures.

In 2014, CLT welcomed two new airlines (Frontier Airlines and ViaAir) and gained new flights. American Airlines added domestic service between CLT to Evansville, IN; Ft. Wayne, IN; Grand Rapids, MI; Tulsa, OK and Oklahoma City, OK. The airline also added a second daily flight to London Heathrow Airport. CLT is American's second largest hub behind Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport.