The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released its latest World Air Transport Statistics (WATS), revealing a robust and dynamic year for global aviation in 2024. The report highlights significant growth in passenger traffic, with Asia Pacific dominating the world’s busiest air routes and premium travel showing strong gains across several regions.
Key Findings from the 2024 WATS Report:
- Asia Pacific Leads Busiest Routes: The Asia Pacific region solidified its position as the hub for the world’s most popular flight routes. The Jeju-Seoul (CJU-GMP) route in South Korea was the busiest globally, with an impressive 13.2 million passengers traveling between the two cities. Only one non-Asia Pacific route, Jeddah-Riyadh (JED-RUH), made it into the top 10 busiest airport pairs.
- Regional Route Highlights: The report also identified the busiest routes in other major regions:
- Latin America: Bogota-Medellin (BOG-MDE) with 3.8 million passengers.
- Africa: Cape Town-Johannesburg (JNB-CPT) with 3.3 million passengers.
- North America: New York (JFK)-Los Angeles (LAX) with 2.2 million passengers.
- Europe: Barcelona-Palma de Mallorca (BCN-PMI) with 2 million passengers.
- Narrowbody Aircraft Dominate: Narrowbody aircraft from Boeing and Airbus were the most frequently used globally. The Boeing 737 family of aircraft topped the list with 10 million flights, followed by the Airbus A320 with 7.9 million flights and the Airbus A321 with 3.4 million flights.
- Top Aviation Markets: The United States remained the world’s largest aviation market with 876 million passengers, a 5.2% increase from the previous year, driven by a strong domestic market. China followed as the second-largest market with 741 million passengers, representing a remarkable 18.7% growth.
- Premium Travel Outpaces Economy in Key Regions: A key finding of the report is the significant growth in international premium class travel (business and first class), which grew by 11.8% globally, slightly outpacing the 11.5% growth in economy travel.
- Europe maintained its status as the largest market for international premium travel, with 39.3 million passengers.
- The Middle East had the highest percentage of premium travelers, with 14.7% of its total passengers flying in premium cabins.
- In Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America, premium travel growth rates exceeded those of economy class travel.
The WATS report provides a comprehensive statistical overview of the air transport industry’s performance.
