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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

January 2021 U.S. Airline Traffic Data

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Release Number: BTS 25-21

 

 

U.S. airlines carried 30.8 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in January 2021, seasonally adjusted, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS), down 0.9% from December.

BTS reported 27.7 million domestic passengers and 3.1 million international passengers on U.S. airlines flights in January.

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

January seasonally adjusted

  • System-wide enplanements (30.8M) were down 61.4% from the all-time high of 79.9 million reached in January 2020.
  • Domestic enplanements (27.7M) were down 60.5% from the all-time high of 70.1 million reached in January 2020.
  • International enplanements (3.12M) were down 68.2% from the all-time high of 9.79 million reached in January 2020.

January unadjusted

  • Systemwide enplanements (27.3M) were down 61.4% from the all-time January high (70.8) reached in 2020 and down 10.5% from December 2020 (30.5M).
  • Domestic enplanements (24.3M) were down 60.5% from the all-time January high (61.6) reached in 2020 and down 10.7% from December 2020 (27.3M).
  • International enplanements (2.99M) were down 67.4% from the all-time January high (9.2) reached in 2020 and down 8.3% from December 2020 (3.26M).

 

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

January

30.8

-0.9%

-61.4%

-57.5%

 

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

January

27.3

-61.4%

-59.2%

-57.6%

 

For data filed through January, 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 64 U.S. carriers as of April 6 for U.S. carrier scheduled civilian operations.

See the BTS Airlines and Airports page for additional scheduled service numbers through January for U.S. airlines. International data by origin and destination is available through October.

BTS has scheduled May 13 for the release of data through February.

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