The US retained its standing as the world’s largest air passenger market in 2025, according to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) 2025 World Air Transport Statistics report.
The US in 2025 had 890.1 million passengers, an increase of 1.6% year over year, according to IATA. Still, its growth rate was the slowest among the top 10 markets. China was second, with 776.1 million passengers, up 4.8%, followed by the UK, with 269.7 million passengers, for an increase of 3.4%.
Of the top 10 markets, Japan, in fifth place with 223.5 million passengers, reported the steepest growth rate at 9.2% year over year.
Total passengers in international premium class — business and first class — increased 4.5% year over year in 2025 to 109.7 million. That number accounted for 5.5% of all international travelers, according to IATA.
Regionally, Latin America and the Caribbean had the largest 2025 increase in premium-class passengers, up 22.1% year over year to 4 million. Europe remained the largest market for premium travel, with 39.7 million passengers, though that number dropped 2.7%, according to IATA. Asia-Pacific premium travelers increased 10% last year to 24.5 million, North America was up 4.6% to 19.2 million, the Middle East increased 9.1% to 18.7 million, and Africa reported an 8.5% increase to 3.5 million.
Nine of the world’s 10 busiest airport pairs in 2025 were in the Asia-Pacific region, led by South Korea’s Jeju and Seoul Gimpo airports, with 13.3 million passengers. The only non-Asian top global pair was between Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, with 7 million passengers, according to IATA.
The busiest North American domestic airport pair in 2025 was New York (JFK)-Los Angeles, with 2.2 million passengers. JFK-London Heathrow was the busiest international airport pair for the region, with 2.1 million passengers. Europe’s top domestic pair remained between Spain’s Barcelona Josep Tarradellas-El Prat Airport and Palma de Mallorca, with 2.1 million passengers. The European pair with the largest growth rate was Stockholm Arlanda Airport and Malmö Airport in Sweden, increasing 85% year over year to more than 271,000 passengers.
