The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released its latest World Air Transport Statistics (WATS), providing a comprehensive overview of global aviation performance, including passenger demand, operational trends, fleet activity, airline performance and market developments through 2025.

The annual report, which incorporates data from 1,315 airlines worldwide, highlights continued growth in international travel, strong demand for premium services and evolving patterns in aircraft utilisation and regional markets.

International premium-class travel recorded significant growth in 2025, with business and first-class passenger numbers reaching 109.7 million, up 4.5% compared with the previous year.

Premium travellers accounted for 5.5% of all international passengers. Latin America recorded the strongest growth, with premium passenger numbers rising 22.1% to 4 million, while Europe remained the largest premium travel market with 39.7 million passengers. The Middle East and North America recorded the highest premium-class share of total passengers.

Asia Pacific continued to dominate global air connectivity, with the Jeju International Airport–Seoul Gimpo International Airport route in South Korea ranking as the world’s busiest airport pair, carrying 13.3 million passengers.

Nine of the top 10 busiest airport pairs were located in the Asia Pacific region, with all ranking routes being domestic connections.

Outside the region, Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah–Riyadh route was the only non-Asia Pacific entry.

Regional highlights included Cape Town–Johannesburg as Africa’s busiest airport pair, Bogotá–Medellín as Latin America’s busiest, and Barcelona–Palma de Mallorca as Europe’s busiest route.

In North America, New York JFK–Los Angeles remained the busiest domestic connection, while JFK–London Heathrow led international traffic.

The US remained the world’s largest passenger market in 2025, recording 890.1 million passengers, followed by China with 776.1 million.

Central Asian markets showed strong expansion, with Kazakhstan passenger numbers rising 40% and Uzbekistan growing 16.9%.

Vietnam also recorded notable growth, increasing 14.8% to 80.9 million passengers.

Aircraft utilisation trends showed continued preference for efficient models, with Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 operations increasing significantly since 2019.

Narrowbody aircraft remained dominant, led by Boeing 737, Airbus A320 and Airbus A321 fleets, which accounted for the highest number of flights worldwide in 2025. -TradeArabia News Service