How Much Airline Traffic Increased in 2021

Well, this is likely stating the obvious but traffic on U.S. airlines in 2021 was up significantly over 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic when the aviation industry practically came to a standstill.

But it still isn’t back to the levels it was at in 2019, the year that travel companies use as a barometer to measure the success of its comeback from the effects of the virus on the economy.

Domestic airlines carried 670.4 million passengers in 2021, according to Reuters News Agency which used figures from the Department of Transportation. That was up more than 300 million more fliers, or a whopping 83 percent, from 2020’s total passenger volume.

But that 670 million passengers in 2021 was still far below 2019 levels. Last year’s total featured 245.9 million fewer fliers, or 27 percent less, than in 2019.

That’s further exemplified by the number of domestic flights vs. international flights. With fear of travel overseas and many countries instituting visitor restrictions, domestic travel in 2021 accounted for 91 percent of all flights compared to 88 percent in 2019 – a modest jump but nonetheless indicative of people choosing to travel within the U.S. and not for business or international trips.

And while hopes were high that 2022 will be the year that travel returns to normal, it hasn’t started that way. Reuters, using data from the aviation trade group Airlines for America, noted that said air travel in the month of January this year was down 25 percent compared to 2019. That’s only two percent better than the yearly comparisons and a sign tht, if it’s only going to grow at that minuscule amount, it will be more like late this year or into 2023 before air travel gets back to 2019 levels.