GENEVA — IATA has released the latest edition of its World Air Transport Statistics (WATS), providing statistical data through to 2025.
The report drills down on data from the 1,315 airlines in the IATA Annual Statistics collection. The annual overview provides stats related to demand, supply and operational performance as well as the world’s airline fleet, top routes and financial performance.
The latest stats include …
Premium-class growth
The number of international premium-class passengers – business and first class – reached 109.7 million in 2025, up 4.5% year over year. This accounted for 5.5% of all international travellers, says IATA.
North America (10.4%) and the Middle East (9.5%) accounted for the highest shares of premium-class passengers as a proportion of total passenger numbers. Latin America saw the largest jump in premium-class passengers, rising 22.1% to 4.0 million. Europe remained the biggest market for premium travel, with 39.7 million passengers in 2025.
Busiest city-pairs
Asia Pacific dominated the ranking of the world’s busiest airport pairs, with Jeju International Airport-Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport (CJU-GMP) remaining the most popular route globally, with 13.3 million passengers traveling between the two airports. In the top 10, only one airport pair—Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport-Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport (JED-RUH)—was outside the Asia Pacific region.
New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport-Los Angeles International Airport (JFK-LAX) was the busiest domestic airport pair in North America with 2.2 million passengers, and JFK-London Heathrow (JFK-LHR) was the busiest international airport pair from North America with 2.1 million passengers.
Top passenger markets by country
The U.S. remained the world’s biggest passenger market, with 890.1 million passengers (both arriving and departing) recorded in 2025. However, it recorded the slowest growth of the world’s top 10 markets, up just 1.6% year-on-year compared to 2024. China was the second-biggest passenger market, with 776.1 million passengers in 2025, a growth of 4.8% compared to 2024.
