November 2024 U.S. airline traffic data down 0.8% from same month last year

Feb 13, 2025

U.S. airlines carried 77.1 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in November 2024, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). When adjusted for seasonality, November enplanements are up 2.4% from October and down 0.2% from the all-time high reached in June 2024.

BTS reported 67.7 million domestic passengers and 9.4 million international passengers on U.S. airlines flights in November, not adjusting for seasonality.

U.S. airline traffic reports are filed monthly with BTS. See the tables that accompany this release on the BTS website for summary data since 2016 (Tables 1-24) and complete data since 2000.

Trends (not seasonally adjusted) in U.S. airlines passenger enplanements
November unadjusted

Systemwide enplanements (77.1M) were down 0.8% from the all-time November high (77.7) reached in 2023.
Domestic enplanements (67.7M) were down 1.1% from the all-time November high (68.4) reached in 2023.
International enplanements (9.37M) reached a new all-time high for the month of November.

Line chart depicting Monthly Passengers on U.S. Scheduled Airline in November 2021 to November 2024

Table A. Unadjusted Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods

		Percent Change Compared to
Unadjusted	Passengers (in millions)	Previous Year	Two Years Previous	Three Years Previous
November	77.1	-0.8%	7.2%	17.1%

Seasonally adjusted trends in U.S. airlines passenger enplanements

November seasonally adjusted

Systemwide enplanements (82.9M) were down 0.2% from the all-time high of 83.1 million reached in June 2024.
Domestic enplanements (72.0M) were down 0.4% from the all-time high of 72.3 million reached in June 2024.
International enplanements (10.88M) were down 1.4% from the all-time high of 11.04 million reached in February 2024.

Table B. Seasonally Adjusted Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods

		Percent Change Compared to
Seasonally Adjusted	Passengers (in millions)	Previous Month	Previous Year	Three Years Previous
November	82.9	2.4%	2.4%	20.5%

For data filed through November, see accompanying tables. For the complete database of reported data, see Traffic. For an explanation of BTS’ seasonal adjustment methodology, see Seasonal Adjustment.

Reporting Notes
Data are compiled from monthly reports filed with BTS by commercial U.S. air carriers detailing operations, passenger traffic and freight traffic. This release includes data received by BTS from 77 U.S. carriers as of February 5 for U.S. carrier scheduled civilian operations.

See the BTS Airlines and Airports page for additional scheduled service numbers through November for U.S. airlines. International data by origin and destination is available through August. International totals in this press release consist of all U.S. carrier operations to and from the U.S. and from one foreign point to another foreign point. BTS’ Airlines and Airports page does not include U.S. carriers’ foreign point-to-point flights.

BTS has scheduled March 14 for the release of data through December.

None of the data are from samples. Measures of statistical significance do not apply to the complete air traffic data.

BTS separately releases preliminary enplanement estimates. Unlike the monthly air traffic releases, which are calculated from U.S. carrier scheduled civilian operations, the preliminary estimates are forecasted from data including all carriers and unscheduled service, with a total estimate of 88.9M passengers for November. Using only the U.S. carrier scheduled service figures, BTS’ preliminary estimates for November were 78.9M passengers, which was over 97% accurate.