Source: US DOT

U.S. airlines carried 75.1 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in September 2022, seasonally-adjusted, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS), up 6.3% from August.

BTS reported 65.8 million domestic passengers and 9.3 million international passengers on U.S. airlines flights in September.

U.S. airline traffic reports are filed monthly with BTS. See the tables that accompany this release on the BTS website for summary data since 2016 (Tables 1-24) and complete data since 2000.

Two measures of U.S. airlines passenger enplanements:

September seasonally adjusted:

  • System-wide enplanements (75.1M) were down 6.9% from the all-time high of 80.6 million reached in January 2020.
  • Domestic enplanements (65.8M) were down 7.2% from the all-time high of 70.9 million reached in January 2020.
  • International enplanements (9.27M) were down 5.1% from the all-time high of 9.77 million reached in October 2019.

September unadjusted: 

  • Systemwide enplanements (71.4M) were down 1.6% from the all-time September high (72.6) reached in 2019.
  • Domestic enplanements (63.1M) were down 1.3% from the all-time September high (64.0) reached in 2019.
  • International enplanements (8.29M) were down 3.7% from the all-time September high (8.61) reached in 2019.

Table A. Seasonally Adjusted Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods

Passengers (in millions) Percent Change Compared to
Previous Month Previous Year Three Years Previous
September 75.1 6.3% 20.1% -3.1%

Table B. Unadjusted Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods

Unadjusted Passengers (in millions) Percent Change Compared to
Previous Month Previous Year Three Years Previous
September 71.4 21.6% 182.7% -1.6%

For data filed through September, see accompanying tables. For the complete database of reported data, see Traffic. For an explanation of BTS’ seasonal adjustment methodology, see Seasonal Adjustment.

Reporting Notes
Data are compiled from monthly reports filed with BTS by commercial U.S. air carriers detailing operations, passenger traffic and freight traffic. This release includes data received by BTS from 77 U.S. carriers as of December 7 for U.S. carrier scheduled civilian operations.

See the BTS Airlines and Airports page for additional scheduled service numbers through September for U.S. airlines. International data by origin and destination is available through June. International totals in this press release consist of all U.S. carrier operations to and from the U.S. and from one foreign point to another foreign point. BTS’ Airlines and Airports page does not include U.S. carriers’ foreign point-to-point flights.

BTS has scheduled January 12th for the release of data through October.

None of the data are from samples. Measures of statistical significance do not apply to the complete air traffic data.