India Becomes World’s 5th Largest Aviation Market With 211 Million Air Travellers in 2024
India handled 211 million air travellers in 2024, surpassing Japan’s 205 million. The United States topped the list with 876 million. The Mumbai–Delhi route ranked 7th among the world’s busiest air sectors.
India recorded 211 million air travellers last year, marking an increase of 11.1 per cent compared to 2023. This pushed India ahead of Japan, which recorded 205 million travellers with a year-on-year rise of 18.6 per cent, according to the World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
India’s passenger volume increased by 11.1% over the previous year, overtaking Japan despite the latter posting faster growth at 18.6%.
“The United States continues to be the largest aviation market globally, with 876 million air travellers in 2024, backed by its strong domestic sector, and showing 5.2 per cent annual growth.
“China remained the second-largest aviation market, with 741 million passengers, recording an 18.7 per cent rise compared to 2023,” the report noted.
India was placed 5th in the global ranking, while the United Kingdom stood 3rd with 261 million passengers, and Spain came 4th with 241 million. These totals account for both domestic and international passengers either arriving in or departing from each respective country.
Among international airport routes, the Mumbai–Delhi flight corridor carried 5.9 million passengers in 2024, making it the 7th busiest globally. The Jeju–Seoul (CJU–GMP) sector in South Korea secured the top spot with 13.2 million passengers.
“The Asia Pacific region dominated the rankings for the busiest airport routes globally,” IATA observed, noting that Jeddah–Riyadh (JED–RUH) was the only non-Asia Pacific route to appear in the top 10.
The Asia Pacific region led the way in premium class growth, witnessing a 22.8% year-on-year increase with 21 million premium travellers. However, economy class travel rose even faster in the region, growing by 28.6% to reach 500.8 million passengers.
On the other hand, regions like Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America reported quicker growth in premium class travel compared to economy class. Europe remained the biggest market for international premium travellers, recording 39.3 million such passengers, while the Middle East had the highest percentage of premium travellers at 14.7%.
In 2024, Boeing’s B737 emerged as the most-used aircraft worldwide, with 10 million flights and generating 2.4 trillion Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs). The Airbus A320 followed with 7.9 million flights and 1.7 trillion ASKs, while the Airbus A321 was third with 3.4 million flights and 1.1 trillion ASKs. ASK is a key aviation metric that measures the capacity available to carry passengers.
