The latest edition of the World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) with comprehensive statistical data for 2024, released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has revealed that the Boeing 737, Airbus A320 were the most used aircraft globally in 2024.
Updated annually with data from over 240 international airlines, the WATS database provides a complete overview of airline metrics related to demand, supply, and performance.
According to the data, Boeing 737 aircraft (including all variants) flew 10 million flights with 2.4 trillion Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) in 2024. This was followed by the Airbus A320 with 7.9 million flights and 1.7 trillion ASKs and the Airbus A321 with 3.4 million flights and 1.1 trillion ASKs.
The report includes a detailed breakdown of scheduled passenger and cargo traffic demand, scheduled passenger and cargo capacity, an overview of the global airline fleet, and top airport pairs.
The data also provides details on the financial health of the industry with in-depth information on operating costs and revenue, aircraft utilisation and the number of airline employees.
Findings from this year’s report showed that international premium class travel—business and first class—grew by 11.8 percent, outpacing growth in global economy travel of 11.5 percent.
The total number of international premium-class travellers in 2024 was 116.9 million, six per cent of total international passengers.
In terms of percentage growth across the region was Asia Pacific, with a year-on-year growth of 22.8per cent, with 21 million premium passengers—although it was outpaced in growth by economy class passenger numbers, up 28.6 per cent to 500.8 million.
However, growth in premium travel exceeded economy class travel in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America. Europe remained the largest market for international premium travel, with 39.3 million premium passengers, while premium travellers as a percentage of all travellers were highest in the Middle East at 14.7per cent.
Meanwhile, Asia Pacific dominated the ranking for the world’s busiest airport pairs, with Jeju-Seoul (CJU-GMP) the most popular route globally, with 13.2 million passengers flying between the two airports in 2024. In the top 10, only one airport pair—Jeddah-Riyadh (JED-RUH) —was not in the Asia Pacific region.
Bogota-Medellin (BOG-MDE) was the busiest route in Latin America with 3.8 million passengers, while Cape Town-Johannesburg (JNB-CPT) was Africa’s busiest route, with 3.3 million passengers. New York John F. Kennedy International Airport-Los Angeles (JFK-LAX) was the busiest route in North America with 2.2 million passengers, while Barcelona-Palma de Mallorca (BCN-PMI) was the busiest within Europe with 2 million passengers.