In August 2025, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a global airline body representing approximately 350 carriers, released the latest edition of the World Airport Transport Statistics (WATS) for 2024. As per the report, India ranked as the world’s 5th largest aviation market in 2024, handling 211 million passengers, marking an 11.1% year-on-year(Y-o-Y) growth from 2023.
- The United States of America (USA) retained its position as the world’s largest aviation market in 2024, handling 876 million passengers, followed by China in second place with 741 million passengers.
- Also, Mumbai-Delhi route ranked 7th among the world’s top 10 busiest airport pairs, carrying 5.9 million passengers in 2024.
Exam Hints:
- What? Release of World Airport Transport Statistics (WATS) for 2024
- Published by: IATA
- World’s Largest Aviation Market: USA (876 million passengers)
- India’s Rank: 5th spot (211 million passengers)
- World’s Busiest Airport Pairs: Jeju-Seoul Gimpo in South Korea (13.2 million)
- India’s Busiest Airport Pairs: Delhi-Mumbai route (globally ranked at 7th spot).
About World Air Transport Statistics (WATS):
Overview: The WATS is an annual, comprehensive aviation data publication released by the IATA.
Coverage: It covers passenger and cargo traffic, fleet usage, financial performance, and key aviation metrics such as Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPK), Available Seat Kilometres (ASK), Cargo Tonne Kilometres (CTK), passenger load factors, and airline cost and revenue structures.
Highlights of WATS 2024:
Other Countries in Top 5: The United Kingdom (UK) with 261 million passengers ranked at 3rd position in terms of biggest passenger market in 2024; followed by Spain ranked at the 4th position with 241 million passengers.
International Premium Class Travel: The report revealed that international premium class travel including business and first class, has increased by 11.8%, outpacing growth in global economy travel of 11.5%.
- It also showed that the total number of international premium-class travelers in 2024 was 116.9 million, representing 6% of total international passengers.
World’s Top 5 Biggest Aviation Market in 2024:
| Rank | Name of the Country | Passenger Handling (Million) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The United States of America (USA) | 876 |
| 2 | China | 741 |
| 3 | The United Kingdom (UK) | 261 |
| 4 | Spain | 241 |
| 5 | India | 211 |
Top Busiest Airport Pairs: Asia-Pacific region topped among the world’s busiest airports, with Jeju-Seoul Gimpo(CJU-GMP) in South Korea emerged as the most popular route globally, with 13.2 million passengers flying between two airports in 2024.
- Among the world’s top 10 busiest airports pairs in 2024, 9 were in Asia-Pacific region except one: Jeddah-Riyadh (JED-RUH) in Saudi Arabia ranked at 6th spot and carried 6.3 million passengers in 2024.
World’s Top 5 Busiest Airport Pairs in 2024:
| Rank | Name of the Route | Name of the Country | Carried Passengers (Million) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeju-Seoul Gimpo | South Korea
| 13.2 |
| 2 | Sapporo-Tokyo Haneda | Japan | 9.2
|
| 3 | Fukuoka-Tokyo Haneda | Japan | 9 |
| 4 | Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City | Vietnam | 8
|
| 5 | Melbourne Tullamarine-Sydney | Australia | 7.2
|
| 7 | Mumbai-Delhi | India | 5.9
|
Region-wise International Premium Class Travel: Asia Pacific region, with a Y-o-Y growth of 22.8%, with 21 million premium passengers, topped among the regions in terms of percentage growth in premium travel.
- However, it was outpaced in growth by economy class passenger numbers, increase of 28.6% to 500.8 million passengers.
- Europe continued to be the largest premium market (with 39.3 million passengers); while the Middle-East region had the highest share of premium passengers at 14.7%.
- Premium travel growth outpaced economy class travel in regions like: Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America.
Region-wise Busiest Airport Pairs: Bogota-Medellin (BOG-MDE) was the busiest route in Latin America region, with 3.8 million passengers;
- Cape Town-Johannesburg (CPT-JNB) in South Africa (with 3.3 million passengers), was the busiest route in the Africa region.
- New York John F. Kennedy International Airport-Los Angeles (JFK-LAX) in the USA (with 2.2 million passengers), was the busiest route in the North America region.
- Barcelona-Palm de Mallorca (BCN-PMI) in Spain (with 2million passengers), was the busiest route in Europe.
Most Flown Aircrafts: As per the report, The Boeing 737 (all variants) topped usage in 2024 with 10 million flights and generated 2.4 trillion Available Seat Kilometers (ASKs), a key indicator used to measure airline capacity.
- It was followed by the Airbus A320, with 7.9 million flights and 1.7 trillion ASKs, and the Airbus A321, with 3.4 million flights and 1.1 trillion ASKs.
About International Air Transport Association (IATA):
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)- Willie Matthew Walsh
Headquarters- Montreal, Canada
Established- 1945
