Top 2025 Port Ranking For ORD And JFK

Source Domain: www.forbes.com

Gold, which goes by the symbol Au on the period table, as well as computers for the AI industry and GLP-1 drugs for weight loss helped put two airports atop the U.S. ranking of ports, a first.

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Two U.S. airports, Chicago’s O’Hare International and New York’s JFK International, ranked first and second among all the nation’s airports, seaports and border crossings in 2025, something that certainly had not happened in decades and more likely ever.

Credit AI with an avalanche of computer hardware imports associated with the buildout of data centers for the nascent artificial intelligence industry.
Credit “GLP-1 drugs” like Wegovy, Mounjaro and Ozempic for feeding an enormous appetite for Americans interested in losing weight.
Credit gold – Au on the periodic table – which experienced its most rapid price increase in four decades last year, and gold trade tied to skittishness about the U.S. and global economy in the era of President Trump’s tariff war with the world.

Port Laredo in Texas was the nation’s No. 1-ranked port the previous two years – and for the fifth straight year its trade set a record in 2025. That was not enough for Port Laredo to remain No 1. It finished third despite its growing trade with Mexico, which accounts for 97% of its exports and imports.

For decades, prior to Port Laredo’s perch atop the rankings, that honor belonged to the Port of Los Angeles. That was until Trump’s first-term trade war against China shifted global trade patterns. In 2025, the Port of Los Angeles finished fourth, certainly its lowest ranking in many decades.

Whether the two airports – or even one airport – have ever ranked first among the nation’s 450-plus U.S. airports, seaports and border crossings can’t be determined with U.S. Census Bureau data used for this post because it only goes back to 2006 for the nation’s ports.