U.S. International Air Passenger and Freight Statistics Report

Overview

U.S. International Air Passenger and Freight data is confidential for a period of 6 months, after which it can be released.  As a result, quarterly reports and the year to date/calendar year raw data files available here will always lag by two quarters.

The U.S. International Air Passenger and Freight Statistics report has been developed to provide the public with additional access to international aviation data.  The report is restricted to nonstop commercial traffic traveling between international points and U.S. airports.  Global air travel systems are comprised of complex, ever-changing networks and alliances.  The majority of international passengers to and from the U.S. make at least one connection before reaching their final destination.

This report represents a limited aspect of international travel - nonstop flows into and out of the U.S.  Cities that serve as an international gateway will have high numbers in this report, but users should bear in mind that some portion of this traffic continued on a connecting flight to their final destination.  Conversely, U.S. carriers serve some international points only through an international connection; therefore it might look as if no US carrier serves a certain international point when in fact US carrier traffic is first flowing through a connecting city. Figures for U.S. nonstop market share do not necessarily correlate to the total service provided to that point by all U.S. carriers.

Comments on the COVID-19 global pandemic impact: 

The pandemic’s full impact on traffic and revenue levels is reflected beginning in the second quarter 2020 report and will be reflected in subsequent quarterly reports.  Both Domestic and International traffic and revenue fell sharply.

Data

• US International Air Passenger and Freight Reports
• Airport Codes in .txt format
• International Carrier Codes in .txt format
• Metadata Table 

The data for the International Passenger and Freight Reports can be found at DOT's public data portal, data.transportation.gov.  This site allows the public to access and extract data sets for multiple time periods using user-specified criteria.  Please click on the following links to open new pages to the table data:

Passenger

Freight

Departures

Seats

About the Data

The widespread use of code-share agreements also influences this data. Under a code-share agreement, it is common for a passenger to fly on an aircraft owned and operated by a different airline the one from which they bought their ticket. The data in this report represents the air carrier that operated the passenger or cargo flight reported. In some cases, such as U.S. to China, regulatory impediments make it difficult for U.S. domestic carriers to operate adequate service using their own equipment. U.S. carriers compensate by marketing and selling tickets under their own code to those destinations, and then arranging for a foreign code-share partner to actually transport the passengers. Therefore low U.S. market share in certain restricted markets is not indicative of the true proportion of passengers purchasing U.S. carrier tickets, but rather represents the type of carrier that transported the passenger reported. Code-sharing and network- flow data issues also apply to cargo shipments.

The data in this report is presented in a top-down format. Table 1 provides gross summaries of U.S.-International passengers, capacity, and freight. The same data is then broken down by world area, and country in Tables 2 through 5. Scheduled passengers data for the largest domestic gateway cities, the largest foreign gateway cities, and the largest U.S.- International city-pairs can be found in Tables 6,7, and 8. All data is derived from the T-100 Segment reports submitted to the Department by U.S. and foreign carriers.

About the T-100 Program

The T-100 program was instituted by the Department of Transportation effective January 1, 1990. It covers traffic reports of foreign airlines operating to and from the United States and traffic reports of the domestic and international operations of U.S. airlines. The airlines submit these reports monthly to the Department’s Office of Airline Information (OAI) of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The rules governing disclosure of the International T-100 data provide that data be kept confidential for a period of six months beyond the reporting date.

Users of this report should take the following points into consideration:

• The T-100 segment data includes all traffic arriving at U.S. airports and departing from U.S. airports on nonstop commercial international flights.
• T-100 segment data represents only nonstop service. The absence of U.S. nonstop service, or a low U.S. flag market share, does not necessarily correlate to the amount of service provided to that point by U.S. carriers. Many international destinations are served by U.S. carriers via connecting points.
• Conversely, traffic on U.S.– International routes that serve as connecting gateways will exceed the number of true Origin & Destination passengers on the route because of the high percentage of traffic connecting through the gateway.
• T100 data is reported according to the operating carrier.  In extensive code-share relationships (particularly to certain Asian countries) U.S. airlines sell a large number of tickets to passengers and have their foreign carrier partners operate the service.  Passengers on such services will be reported into the T100 system by the foreign carrier partner (that operated the service) rather than the U.S. Flag carrier that sold the passenger their ticket.
• Cargo carriers also employ the use of networks and code-share arrangements; therefore cargo data is susceptible to the same reporting shortcomings in this report as passenger data.
• Freight tons do not include mail.

International Passenger and Freight Reports