Global air travel reaches new milestones in 2025, says IATA

Published annually, WATS compiles data from 1,315 airlines worldwide, including more than 250 international carriers that contribute detailed operational statistics. IATA report covers passenger demand, airline capacity, operational performance, fleet composition, financial results, employment, and the world’s busiest routes.

Premium travel continues to expand
International premium travel remained on an upward trajectory in 2025. Business and first-class passenger numbers reached 109.7 million, an increase of 4.5% year over year. Premium travellers represented 5.5% of all international passengers.

Premium-class travel by region

Latin America:       Fastest growth, up 22.1% to 4.0 million premium passengers

Europe:         Largest premium market with 39.7 million passengers

North America:      Highest premium share of total passengers at 10.4%

Middle East:          Premium travellers accounted for 9.5% of passengers

Asia dominates the world’s busiest airport pairs
Asia Pacific continued to lead global domestic air travel.

The route between Jeju International Airport (CJU) and Seoul Gimpo International Airport (GMP) remained the world’s busiest airport pair, carrying 13.3 million passengers during 2025.

All of the world’s top 10 busiest airport pairs were domestic routes, with only one located outside Asia Pacific—the connection between Jeddah (JED) and Riyadh (RUH) in Saudi Arabia.

Busiest airport pairs by region

Busiest airport pair

Passengers

Africa
Cape Town–Johannesburg: 3.4 million

Latin America
Bogotá–Medellín: 3.5 million

Europe
Barcelona–Palma de Mallorca: 2.1 million

North America (domestic)
New York JFK–Los Angeles: 2.2 million

North America (international)
New York JFK–London Heathrow: 2.1 million

Europe’s fastest-growing airport pair was Stockholm Arlanda–Malmö, where passenger traffic surged 85% to 271,031 travellers.

United States remains the largest aviation market. The United States retained its position as the world’s largest passenger market in 2025.

U.S. airports handled 890.1 million arriving and departing passengers, although growth slowed to 1.6%, the weakest among the world’s top ten aviation markets.

China ranked second with 776.1 million passengers, representing 4.8% annual growth.

Several emerging markets posted much stronger gains.

Kazakhstan: 18.1 million passengers (+40.0%)

Uzbekistan: 12.5 million passengers (+16.9%)

Vietnam: 80.9 million passengers (+14.8%)

New-generation aircraft continue replacing older fleets
Airlines continued shifting toward newer, more fuel-efficient widebody aircraft.

Compared with 2019, flights operated by the Boeing 787 increased 40.8%, while Airbus A350 operations jumped 117.4%. Meanwhile, Airbus A380 flights remained well below pre-pandemic levels, down 24.4%.

Among narrow-body aircraft, Boeing and Airbus continued to dominate global fleets.

Most-flown aircraft in 2025

Aircraft type

Boeing 737 family: 10.8 million (+12.0% vs. 2024)

Airbus A320: 8.7 million

Airbus A321: 4.2 million

The latest WATS report underscores aviation’s continued recovery and expansion, highlighting strong demand for premium travel, resilient domestic markets in Asia, and airlines’ ongoing investment in more efficient aircraft as global passenger traffic continues to grow.