Syllabus: 

GS3: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.  

Context:

Recently, the International Airport Transport Association (IATA) released the latest edition of the World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) for 2024.

Key Findings of the WATS 2024

India Specific Findings

• India ranked 5th in 2024 with 211 million air passengers, up 11.1% from 2023, ahead of Japan's 205 million (up 18.6%).
• Among the top 10 airport pairs, Mumbai-Delhi was the 7th busiest, carrying 5.9 million passengers in 2024. 

Aviation market: 

• U.S. remains the world's biggest aviation market with 876 million passengers in 2024 on the strength of its domestic market, growing by 5.2% year-on-year. 
• China was the second-biggest passenger market, with 741 million passengers, a growth of 18.7% compared to 2023.
• The UK was at the 3rd spot with 261 million passengers, while Spain stood at the 4th position with 241 million.
• The figures include all international and domestic passengers departing or arriving in each country.

Airport Pairs: 

• Jeju to Seoul was the world’s busiest route in 2024, with 13.2 million passengers.
• Only Jeddah-Riyadh in the top 10 was outside  Asia Pacific.

Premium Flight Expansion: 

• As per the grouping, international premium class travel, business and first class, grew 11.8%, outpacing growth in global economy travel of 11.5% outgrowing 6% of 2024.
• Asia Pacific led in growth with a 22.8% rise in premium passengers (21M), but economy class grew faster, up 28.6% to 500.8M.
• Europe led in international premium travel with 39.3M passengers, while the Middle East had the highest premium share at 14.7%.

Aircraft Usage

• In 2024, narrow-body planes of Boeing and Airbus were among the most used ones.
• In 2024, Boeing's B737 led with 10M flights and 2.4T ASKs, followed by the Airbus A320 (7.9M flights, 1.7T ASKs) and A321 (3.4M flights, 1.1T ASKs).
• Available Seat Kilometres (ASK) is a key metric used in aviation to measure passenger-carrying capacity.

International Airport Transport Association (IATA) 

• IATA was founded, in Havana on 19 April 1945. It promotes safe, reliable, and economical air travel through global airline cooperation.
• It has some 350 members from 120 nations in every part of the globe.
• IATA is the successor to the International Air Traffic Association founded in the Hague in 1919 - the year of the world's first international scheduled services.

World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) 

• WATS is the trusted annual source for global aviation data, covering demand, supply, performance, and detailed airline and aircraft stats from 250+ airlines.
• WATS provides actual passenger and cargo traffic data with multiple breakdowns, for example, region, nationality, airline type, global route, and cabin Weight Load Factor (WLF)

Sources:

https://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/india-emerges-as-worlds-5th-biggest-aviation-market-mumbai-delhi-among-busiest-airport-pairs-in-2024-iata/article69893830.ece https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/2025-releases/2025-08-04-01/ https://www.iata.org/en/about/history/