March 2023 US Airline Enplanements Reach Within One Percent of All-Time Monthly High in 2019

March 2023 Airline Traffic Infographic

U.S. airlines carried 79.5 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in March 2023, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). When adjusted for seasonality, March enplanements are down 4.0% from February and down 6.5% from the all-time high reached in January 2020.

BTS reported 69.4 million domestic passengers and 10.0 million international passengers on U.S. airlines flights in March, 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

March seasonally adjusted:

System-wide enplanements (75.5M) were down 6.5% from the all-time high of 80.8 million reached in January 2020.
Domestic enplanements (65.8M) were down 7.3% from the all-time high of 71.0 million reached in January 2020.
International enplanements (9.74M) were down 1.8% from the all-time high of 9.92 million reached in February 2023.

March unadjusted:

Systemwide enplanements (79.5M) were down 0.9% from the all-time March high (80.2M) reached in 2019.
Domestic enplanements (69.4M) were down 1.1% from the all-time March high (70.2M) reached in 2019.
International enplanements (10.04M) reached a new all-time high for the month of March.

Line chart showing monthly passengers on U.S. scheduled airlines (Domestic and Internation) for March 2020 through March 2023

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

Seasonally Adjusted	Passengers (in millions)	Percent Change Compared to:
Seasonally Adjusted	Passengers (in millions)	Previous Month	Previous Year	Three Years Previous
March	75.5	-4.0%	8.2%	100.7%

Table B. Unadjusted Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods

Unadjusted	Passengers (in millions)	Percent Change Compared to:
Unadjusted	Passengers (in millions)	Previous Year	Two Years Previous	Three Years Previous
March	79.5	9.7%	85.7%	103.5%

For data filed through March, 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 June 5 for U.S. carrier scheduled civilian operations.

See the BTS Airlines and Airports page for additional scheduled service numbers through March for U.S. airlines. International data by origin and destination is available through December. 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 July 14 for the release of data through April.

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 for March. ExpressJet (EV) is in Chapter 11 and discontinued operations on August 22; there are no operations to report for September and beyond.