Air Passengers by Country — 2023 World Rankings

Air transport passengers carried measures the total number of passengers on flights departing from airports in each country, including both domestic and international passengers. A passenger who flies a round trip between two cities counts as two passengers. The data comes from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) via the World Bank.

The United States dominates global air travel with roughly 900 million passengers per year — more than the next three countries combined. This reflects both the vast geographic distances within the US (making air travel essential for domestic mobility) and the country's role as a global travel hub. China has risen to second place as its domestic air travel market has exploded with rising middle-class incomes and massive airport construction. India is the fastest-growing major aviation market, with passenger numbers roughly doubling every decade.

Air passenger volumes are strongly correlated with economic development and GDP per capita. Countries with the highest per-capita air travel are typically wealthy, geographically dispersed nations: the United States, Australia, Canada, and the Nordic countries. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the largest disruption to global aviation in history — international passenger traffic fell by 75% in 2020 — but most markets have recovered to or exceeded pre-pandemic levels. The aviation industry is under increasing pressure to address its carbon footprint, which accounts for roughly 2.5% of global CO₂ emissions.