2019 Traffic Data for U.S. Airlines and Foreign Airlines U.S. Flights - Final, Full-Year

U.S. airlines and foreign airlines serving the U.S. carried an all-time high of 1.1 billion systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in 2019, 3.9% more than the previous annual record high of 1.0 billion reached in 2018.

• Systemwide: 1,053 million passengers, up 3.9% from 2018 (1,014M)
• Domestic: 811 million passengers, up 4.3% from 2018 (778M)
• International: 241 million passengers, up 2.4% from 2018 (236M)

Air Travel Consumer Report: January 2020 Numbers

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation today released its March 2020 Air Travel Consumer Report (ATCR) on reporting marketing and operating air carrier data compiled for the month of January 2020.  The full consumer report and other aviation consumer matters of interest to the public can be found at http://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer.

Employees at U.S. Scheduled Passenger Airlines Month of January, 1990-2020

January 2020 U.S. Passenger Airline Employment Data

The 21 U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 2.5% more workers in January 2020 than in January 2019:

• January’s 452,933 full-time equivalents (FTEs) was down from the previous month’s employment total in December 2019 (453,976 FTEs) but was the highest FTE total for the month of January since 2003 (466,881 FTEs).  
• January was the 75th consecutive month that U.S. scheduled passenger airline FTEs exceeded the same month of the previous year.

Air Traffic December 2019 Reported

Table B. Unadjusted Reported Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods, December 2019

Table A. Seasonally Adjusted Reported Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods, December 2019

Figure 2. January-December Passengers on U.S. Airlines - 2003-2019

Figure 1. Monthly Passengers on U.S. Scheduled Airlines (Domestic + International), Seasonally Adjusted Dec 2016 - Dec 2019

December 2019 U.S. Airline Traffic Data

U.S. airlines carried 79.0 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in December 2019, reaching a new seasonally-adjusted all-time high, up 0.9% from November.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) is withholding the scheduled release of estimated U.S. airlines’ traffic data for January and February because the estimates are statistical forecasts based on previous trends. The estimates do not account for the impact of the coronavirus.