US Scheduled Airline Passengers Up Under Biden

Click to Enlarge.

For calendar year 2021, U.S. scheduled service airlines carried 670.4M passengers (preliminary*), an increase of 303.6M passengers (83%) from 2020, The Department of Transportation said today. This remains a decrease of 245.9M passengers (-27%) from pre-pandemic 2019.

During 2019, the last full calendar year before the onset of COVID-19 and the botched Trump Administration non- or anti-response, domestic flights accounted for 88% of all passengers, and international flights accounted for 12%. During 2021, domestic flights accounted for 91% of all passengers, and international flights accounted for 9%.

System-wide Passengers

• December 2021 passengers:  66.3M
• Change from December 2020:  118%
• Change from pre-pandemic December 2019:  -16%
• Change from April 2020 low:  +63.3M

Domestic Passengers

• December 2021 passengers: 2M
• Change from December 2020: 118%
• Change from pre-pandemic December 2019: -14%
• Change from April 2020 low: +56.3M passengers
• Domestic percent of total December 2021 passengers: 89%
• Domestic percent of total December 2019 passengers: 88%

* Final December data will be released on March 10. Complete international data by origin and destination, which is under a six-month confidentiality restriction, will be released on June 9.