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U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

February 2023 U.S. Airline Traffic Data

Friday, May 12, 2023

BTS 24-23

Infographic for February 2023 Airline Traffic

U.S. airlines carried 64.6 million (unadjusted for seasonality) systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in February 2023, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS). When adjusted for seasonality, February enplanements are up 1.1% from January and down 1.6% from the all-time high in January 2020.

BTS reported 56.5 million domestic passengers and 8.0 million international passengers on U.S. airlines flights in February, not adjusting for seasonality.

U.S. airline traffic reports are filed monthly with BTS. See the tables that accompany this release on the BTS website for summary data since 2016 (Tables 1-24) and complete data since 2000.

Two measures of U.S. airlines passenger enplanements:

February seasonally adjusted

  • System-wide enplanements (79.1M) were down 2.3% from the all-time high of 80.9 million reached in January 2020.
  • Domestic enplanements (69.1M) were down 2.8% from the all-time high of 71.1 million reached in January 2020.
  • International enplanements (9.99M) reached a new all-time high, up 1.7% from the previous all-time high of 9.82 million reached in January 2020. 

February unadjusted 

  • Systemwide enplanements (64.6M) were down 4.8% from the all-time February high (67.8M) reached in 2020.
  • Domestic enplanements (56.5M) were down 5.6% from the all-time February high (59.9M) reached in 2020.
  • International enplanements (8.03M) reached a new all-time high for the month of February.
     

  Line graph showing Monthly Passengers on U.S. Scheduled Airlines (Domestic+International) for February 2020 through February 2023

Table A. Seasonally Adjusted Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods

Seasonally
Adjusted

Passengers
(in millions)

Percent Change Compared to:

Previous
Month

Previous
Year

Three Years
Previous

February

79.1

1.1%

18.0%

-1.6%

 

Table B. Unadjusted Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods

Unadjusted

Passengers
(in millions)

Percent Change Compared to:

Previous
Year

Two Years
Previous

Three Years
Previous

February

64.6

17.8%

142.6%

-4.8%

 

For data filed through February, see accompanying tables. For the complete database of reported data, see Traffic. For an explanation of BTS’ seasonal adjustment methodology, see Seasonal Adjustment.

Reporting Notes
Data are compiled from monthly reports filed with BTS by commercial U.S. air carriers detailing operations, passenger traffic and freight traffic. This release includes data received by BTS from 77 U.S. carriers as of May 4 for U.S. carrier scheduled civilian operations. 

See the BTS Airlines and Airports page for additional scheduled service numbers through February for U.S. airlines. International data by origin and destination is available through November. International totals in this press release consist of all U.S. carrier operations to and from the U.S. and from one foreign point to another foreign point. BTS’ Airlines and Airports page does not include U.S. carriers’ foreign point-to-point flights.

BTS has scheduled June 8th for the release of data through March.

None of the data are from samples. Measures of statistical significance do not apply to the complete air traffic data.

Missing carriers: 3E, (Multi-Aero), and 2HQ (Elite) have not reported and 20 (Island Air) is a late submission for February. ExpressJet (EV) is in Chapter 11 and discontinued operations on August 22; there are no operations to report for September and beyond.