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Together the 1150 airports that have declared for January covered 86% of the expected total passenger traffic for the month.
Welcome to the DFNI x Air4casts Traffic Tracker, a monthly update on the latest air passenger data actuals gathered exclusively for DFNI by Air4casts and Airports Council International (ACI).
The world's airports recorded an all-time January high this year. Together the 1150 airports that have declared for January covered 86% of the expected total passenger traffic for the month. They were 7.3% ahead of last year and almost 8% points above January 2019. Once again it was international travel within the mix that drove January's performance.
International Airports
Global international air passenger traffic was almost 9% points ahead of 2019 in January and an excellent 10.5% up on last year, with a big boost coming from the airports in Asia Pacific.
Asia Pacific airports once again reported the strongest international year on year growth in January with passenger numbers nearly 19% ahead of 2024 and marginally ahead of 2019 which is the region's best post-pandemic performance to date. In a pattern that has now become all too familiar however, China's airports were the only significant drag on the regional results in terms of reaching 2019 parity.
African airports had a particularly good month in January and Europe went from strength to strength with international passenger growth of almost 8% compared with last year. In the Middle East January's international growth was exactly twice that of the North American airports while in Latin America the January uplift versus 2019 was spectacular at 18% points.
Key International Markets
China is now the only major Asia Pacific market where the airports still lag behind 2019 although they put on an astonishing 33% surge in January compared with the same month in 2024.
Turkey's airports once again shone in January for sheer international passenger growth while in Asia Pacific both Japan and South Korea performed especially strongly. Both countries are now comfortably ahead of 2019. In Latin America Mexico's airports flatlined year on year in January in what has become somewhat of a regular occurrence in recent months. Brazil's airports flourished with a 13% year on year uplift.
Domestic Airports
The 4.7% year on year rate of growth in January's global domestic air passenger traffic was under half of that of international air travel with results from the key North American market slipping into negative territory. Asia Pacific's domestic markets performed strongly and are now collectively some 15% larger than they were pre-pandemic.
The mature North American domestic market is one to watch with Atlanta, the key American domestic hub, posting January year on year domestic passenger declines. The contrast with the Chinese domestic market is stark. Elsewhere European domestic traffic rose almost 3% points in January although it remains significantly smaller than it was six years ago.
All data comes from Air4casts' daily updated airport actuals programme in conjunction with ACI (Airports Council International).
