Amid all of the bad headlines surrounding Chicago airports last week following the sabotage and arson attack at the Aurora air traffic control center that crippled the airports in the area, a good news story has emerged for O'Hare, the largest of the city's airports.

The crown of "world's busiest airport" is back in Chicago as O'Hare last week regained the position — a title it lost in 1997 to Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport and its growing Delta Air Lines hub.

When the fire struck the ATC facility on Sept. 27, more than 200 flights were canceled from O'Hare, with a total of 2,472 takeoffs and landings that day. By comparison, Atlanta handled 2,441. It's close, but assuming the canceled flights would normally have been on the tally, that would make O'Hare comfortably the leader.

The official figures were announced at the World Routes 2014 convention, coincidentally held in Chicago, and are based on 2014 so far. Through the end of July, O'Hare registered a little over 585,000 departing flights, while Atlanta saw just over 582,000. In terms of passengers handled, Atlanta may still be in the lead; the official figures are not available. But it will be interesting to see where both finish at the end of 2014.

The crown of "world's busiest airport" is back in Chicago as O'Hare last week regained the position — a title it lost in 1997 to Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport.

It might naturally be assumed that O'Hare has regained this title through growth, and in a way is has. But in reality both O'Hare and Atlanta have experienced a drop in the number of flights and routes — the key being that Atlanta lost more than 5 percent of its flights, whereas O'Hare lost less than 1 percent.

O'Hare has managed to attract more international passengers, with a number of new routes added or announced recently, including Belize City, Dubai, Edinburgh and Guadalajara, plus more weekly flights to Hong Kong. It is also due an increase in flights from December when Frontier adds six new destinations, and from April 2015 when Spirit Airlines adds Philadelphia and San Diego routes.

Add to this a growing cargo network, which saw a jump of 8.5 percent in the first six months of the year, and a list of 30 cargo carriers serving the airport. ()

"O'Hare isn't just the busiest airport in the world, it's an asset for the City of Chicago," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said following the announcement. "These new gains will help us attract new businesses and solidify our place as the best connected city in the U.S. and around the world."

As for Atlanta, its reliance on the fortunes of Delta has been slightly abated by the growing presence of Southwest Airlines post-AirTran takeover, although some routes have been suspended. Spirit is also starting new routes.

Yet as the dust settles on the disruption caused by the ATC fire and full service is resumed, O'Hare has one ugly issue to solve — that of on-time performance. Currently, it is one of the worst offenders in the country for flights departing on time. Any passenger who has used the airport during rush hour will know the crowded scenes and chaos, and airport officials must look to address this as more flights are handled.