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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

November 2020 U.S. Airline Traffic Data

Thursday, February 11, 2021
Release Number: BTS 10-21

"infographic showing the decline in passengers over the previous year"

 

U.S. airlines carried 29.7 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in November 2020, seasonally-adjusted, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS), up 1.1% from October.

Of the total, 26.9 million were domestic passengers and 2.9 million were international passengers on U.S. airlines flights.

 

U.S. airlines’ 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:

 

November seasonally-adjusted

  • System-wide enplanements (29.7M) were down 62.7% from the all-time high reached in January 2020 (79.7M).
  • Domestic enplanements (26.9M) were down 61.6% from the all-time high reached in January 2020 (69.9M).
  • International enplanements (2.9M) were down 70.8% from the all-time high reached in January 2020 (9.8M).

 

November unadjusted

  • Systemwide enplanements (28.7M) were down 60.7% from the all-time November high (73.1M) reached in 2019 and down 4.2% from October 2020 (30.0M).
  • Domestic enplanements (26.3M) were down 59.4% from the all-time November high (64.8M) reached in 2019 and down 6.2% from October 2020 (28.0M).
  • International enplanements (2.4M) were down 70.3% from the all-time November high (8.3M) reached in 2019 and up 24.3% from October 2020 (2.0M).

 

Table A. Seasonally-Adjusted Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods
Percent Change Compared to
Seasonally Adjusted
Passengers (in
millions)
Previous Month
Previous Year
Three Years Previous
November 29.7 1.1% -62.4% -58.9%

 

Table B. Unadjusted Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods
Percent Change Compared to
Unadjusted
Passengers (in
millions)
Previous Year
Two Years Previous
Three Years Previous
November 28.7 -60.7% -60.5% -58.7%

For data filed through November, 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 Feb. 2 for U.S. carrier scheduled civilian operations.

BTS is withholding the scheduled release of estimated U.S. airlines’ traffic data for December 2020 and January 2021 because the estimates are statistical forecasts based on previous trends. The estimates do not account for the impact of the coronavirus.

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

BTS has scheduled March 11 for the release of data through December.

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