April 2023 U.S. Airline Traffic Data Up 7.8% from the Same Month Last Year

April 2023 Airline Traffic Infographic

U.S. airlines carried 77.5 million system-wide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in April 2023, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). When adjusted for seasonality, April enplanements are up 3.4% from March and down 3.3% from the all-time high reached in January 2020.

BTS reported 67.5 million domestic passengers and 10 million international passengers on U.S. airlines flights in April, 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

April seasonally adjusted:

System-wide enplanements (78.2M) were down 3.3% from the all-time high of 80.9 million reached in January 2020.
Domestic enplanements (68.2M) were down 4.1% from the all-time high of 71.0 million reached in January 2020.
International enplanements (10.05M) reached a new all-time, seasonally adjusted high based on data through April 2023.

April unadjusted:

Systemwide enplanements (77.5M) reached a new all-time high for the month of April.
Domestic enplanements (67.5M) reached a new all-time high for the month of April.
International enplanements (10.01M) reached a new all-time high for the month of April.

Line chart showing monthly flight passengers on U.S. scheduled airlines for April 2020 through April 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
April	78.2	3.4%	9.1%	2496.5%

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
April	77.5	7.8%	62.2%	2471.8%

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 77 U.S. carriers as of July 6 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 August 10 for the release of data through May.

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