"Despite a recent holiday travel period that sustained extended and widespread airline delays and cancellations, overall for 2021, US carriers tallied fewer cancellations than in pre-pandemic 2019. As the industry faced headwinds of staffing shortages, major winter storms, and the COVID Omicron variant, US carriers closed out 2021 with an overall flight cancellation rate of 1.58%, compared to 2019's rate of 1.70%. Business and private aviation thrived in 2021, steadily rising well above 2019 numbers. As the industries' recovery journey continues, 2022 already shows a 36% increase above the same time period in 2019."
- James Sulak, President, FlightAware
Quick Stats: Commercial Airline Traffic - United States
Weekly Average | Dec 26 - Jan 9
Flights per Day:
2022: 21,908
2021: 16,673
2020: 28,588
2019: 27,689
Year-over-year change:
2022 vs. 2021: +31.40%
2022 vs. 2020: -23.37%
2022 vs. 2019: -20.88%
Quick Stats: Commercial Airline Traffic - Worldwide
Weekly Average | Dec 26 - Jan 9
Flights per Day:
2022: 72,591
2021: 53,845
2020: 99,385
2019: 94,436
Year-over-year change:
2022 vs. 2021: +34.81%
2022 vs. 2020: -26.96%
2022 vs. 2019: -23.13%
Quick Stats: Commercial Airline Traffic - Europe
Weekly Average | Dec 26 - Jan 9
Flights per Day:
2022: 16,164
2021: 7,519
2020: 21,720
2019: 21,107
Year-over-year change:
2022 vs. 2021: +114.99%
2022 vs. 2020: -25.58%
2022 vs. 2019: -23.42%
Quick Stats: Commercial Airline Traffic - China
Weekly Average | Dec 26 - Jan 9
Flights per Day:
2022: 9,750
2021: 10,954
2020: 14,524
2019: 13,555
Year-over-year change:
2022 vs. 2020: -10.99%
2022 vs. 2020: -32.87%
2022 vs. 2019: -28.07%
Commercial Airline: Any scheduled passenger airline flights. The FAA refers to these as Part 121 and Part 129 traffic. The airline numbers shown in this report do not include canceled flights.
Quick Stats: Business Aviation Traffic - United States
Weekly Average | Dec 26 - Jan 9
Flights per Day:
2022: 11,007
2021: 9,533
2020: 9,737
2019: 9,036
Year-over-year change:
2022 vs. 2021: +15.46%
2022 vs. 2020: +13.04%
2022 vs. 2019: +21.81%
Business Aviation: Any turbine general aviation flights that are not commercial or cargo airlines. The FAA refers to these as Part 91 or 135 traffic.
FlightAware (flightaware.com) is the leading provider of real-time and historical flight information and insights to the global aviation community. FlightAware serves all segments of the aviation marketplace through best-in-class applications and data services that provide comprehensive information about the current and predicted movement of aircraft. Through the collection, interpretation, and enrichment of hundreds of sources of data, including data from FlightAware’s own proprietary terrestrial ADS-B network with tens of thousands of receivers spanning seven continents in 200 countries and territories, FlightAware transforms millions of raw flight data elements and delivers them as coherent, easy-to-consume flight stories. As a single source of accurate and actionable data for aviation players large and small, FlightAware is Central to Aviation™. FlightAware is privately held, with headquarters in Houston and sales offices in New York, Austin, Singapore, and London.