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)