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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

May 2026 U.S. Airline Traffic Data Down 0.7% from the Same Month Last Year

Thursday, August 13, 2026

BTS 26-65

This release is published on a fixed schedule as required by the Office of Management and Budget, and statistics in this release may be revised when inputs to the statistics are corrected or updated. Data on the program page of this website are the most up-to-date and complete. 

Infographic with a large blue rectangle on top featuring an airplane and text: "May 2026 passenger enplanements domestic & international." Below are two gray rectangles side-by-side: left "80.5 million, not seasonally adjusted," right " ↑ 1.0% from previous month." Bottom two gray rectangles: left " ↓ -0.7% from the same month last year," right " ↑ 4.1% from May 2019."

U.S. airlines carried 84.7 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in May 2026, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). When adjusted for seasonality, May enplanements are up 0.1% from April and down 3.2% from the all-time high reached in June 2024.

BTS reported 73.8 million domestic passengers and 10.9 million international passengers on U.S. airlines flights in May, 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.

Trends (not seasonally adjusted) in U.S. airlines passenger enplanements

May unadjusted 

  •   Systemwide enplanements (84.7M) were down 2.7% from the all-time May high (87.1) reached in 2024.
  •   Domestic enplanements (73.8M) were down 2.7% from the all-time May high (75.8) reached in 2024.
  •   International enplanements (10.9M) were down 2.9% from the all-time May high (11.3) reached in 2024.
Figure is a line graph showing the number of passengers on U.S scheduled airlines from May 2023 to May 2026 by month. X-axis is the month, and y-axis is the value in millions. Values range from 81.8 in May 2023 to 80.4 in May 2026. High within the date range is 92.2 in July 2025 and low is 67.2 in February 2025.

Table A. Unadjusted Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods 

Unadjusted   

Passengers
(in millions)

Percent Change Compared to

Previous
Year

Two Years
Previous

Three Years
Previous

May         

84.7

-0.7%

-2.7%

3.6%

Seasonally adjusted trends in U.S. airlines passenger enplanements

May seasonally adjusted

  •   Systemwide enplanements (80.5M) were down 3.2% from the all-time high of 83.2 million reached in June 2024.
  •   Domestic enplanements (69.9M) were down 3.3% from the all-time high of 72.3 million reached in June 2024. 
  •   International enplanements (10.6M) were down 4.7% from the all-time high of 11.1 million reached in December 2024.

Table B. 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

May

80.5

0.1%

-0.4%

4.3%

For data filed through April, 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 63 U.S. carriers as of August 4 for U.S. carrier scheduled civilian operations.

See the BTS Airlines and Airports page for additional scheduled service numbers through April for U.S. airlines. International data by origin and destination is available through January. 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 September 11, 2026 for the release of data through June.

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

BTS separately releases preliminary enplanement estimates. Unlike the monthly air traffic releases, which are calculated from U.S. carrier scheduled civilian operations, the preliminary estimates are forecasted from data including all carriers and unscheduled service, with a total estimate of 97.1M passengers for May 2026. Using only the U.S. carrier scheduled service figures, BTS’ preliminary estimates for May 2026 were 86.1M passengers, which was over 98% accurate.

Missing Carrier: (1QQ) City Wings Inc dba Seaflight

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