IATA releases 2024 World Air Transport Statistics: strong growth across key metrics

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has published its 2024 World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) report, offering a detailed snapshot of global aviation trends based on data from over 240 airlines.

Key Highlights

Premium class travel grew by 11.8%, slightly outpacing economy travel growth of 11.5%. A total of 116.9 million premium passengers (6% of all international travellers) were recorded.

• Asia Pacific led in premium passenger growth (+22.8%) but saw even faster growth in economy class (+28.6%).
• Europe remained the largest premium market (39.3 million), while the Middle East had the highest premium share at 14.7%.

Top Routes

Jeju–Seoul (South Korea) was the world’s busiest air route with 13.2 million passengers.

Other regional leaders:

• Latin America: Bogotá–Medellín (3.8m)
• Africa: Johannesburg–Cape Town (3.3m)
• North America: JFK–LAX (2.2m)
• Europe: Barcelona–Palma de Mallorca (2m)
• Middle East: Jeddah–Riyadh was the only top-10 route outside Asia-Pacific

Most Flown Aircraft

Boeing 737 (all variants) topped usage in 2024 with 10 million flights and 2.44 trillion ASKs, followed by:

• Airbus A320: 7.9 million flights
• Airbus A321: 3.4 million flights, with the highest ASK growth at +12.5%
• Airbus A220 saw the fastest growth in usage, up 21.7%

(Note: this statistic is somewhat misleading, because Airbus A320 and A321 are the same family of aircraft and should be regrouped, in which case they would take precedence over the Boeing 737 family of aircraft)

Top Passenger Markets

The United States remained the world’s largest aviation market with 876 million passengers (+5.2%)

China followed with 741 million (+18.7%)

Other top countries:

• UK: 261m (+7.3%)
• Spain: 241m (+10.7%)
• India: 211m (+11.1%)
• Japan: 205m (+18.6%)

The 2024 WATS report reflects a strong post-pandemic recovery and sustained global demand for both passenger and cargo air transport.