IATA highlights top markets and top trends in air transport in 2024

Premium Classes Show Strong Growth

A key finding from this year’s report showed that international premium class travel—business and first class—grew by 11.8%, outpacing growth in global economy travel of 11.5%. The total number of international premium-class travelers in 2024 was 116.9 million (6% of total international passengers).

Leading the regions in terms of percentage growth was Asia Pacific. It showed a year-on-year growth of 22.8% with 21 million premium passengers. However, growth by economy class passenger numbers was even stronger, up 28.6% to 500.8 million.

Growth in premium travel exceeded economy class travel in Europe, Latin America, Middle East and North America. Europe remained the largest market for international premium travel. It translated in fact to 39.3 million premium passengers. In the Middle East, premium travelers as a percentage of all travelers were highest at 14.7%.

Top Airport Pairs

Asia Pacific dominated the ranking for the world’s busiest airport pairs. Domestic route Jeju-Seoul (CJU-GMP) is the number 1 in the world. It recorded 13.2 million passengers flying between the two airports in 2024. In the top 10, only one airport pair—Jeddah-Riyadh (JED-RUH) —was not in Asia Pacific.

Bogota-Medellin (BOG-MDE) was the busiest route in Latin America with 3.8 million passengers while Cape Town-Johannesburg (JNB-CPT) was Africa’s busiest route, with 3.3 million passengers. New York John F. Kennedy International Airport-Los Angeles (JFK-LAX) was the busiest route in North America with 2.2 million passengers while Barcelona-Palma de Mallorca (BCN-PMI) was the busiest within Europe with 2 million passengers.

Most used aircraft

Narrow-body aircraft from Boeing and Airbus were among the most used aircraft in 2024. Boeing 737 aircraft (including all variants) flew 10 million flights with 2.4 trillion Available Seat Kilometers (ASKs) in 2024. This was followed by the Airbus A320 with 7.9 million flights and 1.7 trillion ASKs. Number 3 was the Airbus A321 with 3.4 million flights and 1.1 trillion ASKs.

Top Passenger Countries

IATA WATS shows that the US remains the world’s biggest aviation market with 876 million passengers in 2024. This result is due to the strength of its domestic market, growing 5.2% year-on-year. China was the second-biggest passenger market, with 741 million passengers. It represents a growth of 18.7% compared to 2023.