The Countries With the Most Airline Passenger

In 2023, the United States remained the largest airline market in the world by passengers carried (based on airport location). This is according to data released by ACI World. By 2042, China will have taken on that position, while Indonesia will have moved up nine ranks into rank 4, according to projections by the organization. By 2052, finally, Japan will have moved down to rank 7, from rank 6 in 2023.

India will remain the third-largest air travel makets by passengers thoughout this time frame, according to the data. A different calculation, by ICAO, based on passengers carried by airlines registered in a country, airlines based in India only ranked 51st in the world for passenger volume in the year 2000. By 2010, this had increased to 35th and by 2020 to 30th.

According to ICAO, Asia-Pacific is the biggest air travel market in the world, at 3.42 billion passengers in 2024, compared to 2.47 billion in Europe and 2.17 billion in North America. Within Asia, Chinese domestic routes were most active at 929 million passengers in 2024, followed by passengers flying from China, South and Central Asia to Southeast Asia and Oceania and vice versa at 422 million. Air traffic within South and Central Asia saw 171 million passengers last year, while between South/Central Asia and the Middle East, this number was 189 million.