December 2024 U.S. Airline Traffic Data Up 5.9% from the Same Month Last Year

Friday, March 14, 2025

BTS 14-25

December 2024 Passenger Emplanements, Domestic and International Infographic.png

U.S. airlines carried 83.3 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in December 2024, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). When adjusted for seasonality, December enplanements are up 0.2% from November and reached a new all-time high the all-time high reached in December 2024.

BTS reported 72.1 million domestic passengers and 11.2 million international passengers on U.S. airlines flights in December, 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
December unadjusted

Systemwide enplanements (83.3M) reached a new all-time high for the month of December.
Domestic enplanements (72.1M) reached a new all-time high for the month of December.
International enplanements (11.24M) reached a new all-time high for the month of December.

Line chart depicting Monthly Passengers on U.S. Scheduled Airline in December 2021 to December 2024

Table A. Unadjusted Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods

		Percent Change Compared to
Unadjusted	Passengers (in millions)	Previous Year	Two Years Previous	Three Years Previous
December	83.3	5.9%	15.9%	25.1%z

Seasonally adjusted trends in U.S. airlines passenger enplanements

December seasonally adjusted

Systemwide enplanements (83.3M) reached a new all-time, seasonally-adjusted, high based on data through December 2024.
Domestic enplanements (72.0M) were down 0.3% from the all-time high of 72.2 million reached in June 2024.
International enplanements (11.29M) reached a new all-time, seasonally-adjusted, high based on data through December 2024.

Table B. 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
December	83.3	0.2%	2.3%	22.1%

For data filed through December, 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 March 7 for U.S. carrier scheduled civilian operations.

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

None of the data are 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 95.8M passengers for December. Using only the U.S. carrier scheduled service figures, BTS' preliminary estimates for December were 84.5M passengers, which was over 98% accurate.

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