Don Mueang reached the top of Asia-Pacific's airport chart with the fastest growth in passenger traffic last year.
The century-old Bangkok airport recorded a 30.8% rise in passenger throughput, ahead of Chiang Mai and Abu Dhabi, which saw growth of 21.4% and 20.2%, according to tracking by Airports Council International.
ACI did not provide the passenger numbers passing through Don Mueang in 2014, but statistics from Airports of Thailand Plc show a volume of 19.4 million and aggregate aircraft movements of 172,681, up 19.4% from 2013.
The proliferation of low-cost carriers through Don Mueang, which serves as Thailand's hub for budget airlines, has pushed passenger traffic through the current capacity limit of 18.5 million passengers.
The ACI tracking also revealed that Dubai last year gained the status of world's busiest airport in terms of international passenger traffic alone.
Dubai reported a 6.1% surge in passenger traffic despite a temporary runway closure in mid-2014.
Taking into account domestic and international passenger traffic, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta retained the title of world's busiest hub after handling 96.2 million in 2014, up 1.85% from a year earlier.
Maintaining the second spot for the fifth straight year was Beijing Capital, which saw a 2.9% year-on-year increase to 86.1 million, according to ACI's Airport World magazine.
Beijing was also the busiest airport in Asia-Pacific, though year-on-year growth slowed a bit to 2.9% because of capacity constraints.
Preliminary passenger traffic results for 2014 showed continued moderate growth of 5.9% at Asia-Pacific airports, whereas Middle East airports had stronger growth of 9.4%.
Most leading airports in the region reported positive results in passenger traffic in 2014.
Among the busiest airports in Asia-Pacific, Shanghai Pudong registered 9.5% growth and Incheon had 9.6%.
Air freight traffic in Asia-Pacific concluded 2014 with a steady growth rate of 5.7%. Among the leading cargo airports in the region, Tokyo Haneda reported growth of 14.7%, while the Middle East showed robust gains, with Dubai up 17.8%, Doha 13.2% and Abu Dhabi 12.8%.