2024 marked a historic milestone for global aviation, as it recorded the highest annual number of available passenger seats on flights, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Airlines offered 5.85 billion seats on scheduled flights globally, surpassing the previous record of 5.72 billion seats in 2019 by 2%.
Global seat capacity also increased by 6% year-on-year, thanks to rising demand for air travel and the use of larger aircraft to meet demand.
However, the total number of scheduled flights in 2024, which amounted to 36.4 million, remained 5% below pre-pandemic levels, indicative of the use of larger aircraft with higher seat capacity.
At the UK market level, Cirium reports 1.98 million scheduled flights departing or arriving at airports in 2024. The number of departures increased by 4.3% compared to 2023, and seat capacity +5.9%. The number of departures was 91.2% of pre-pandemic levels, and seat capacity was 99.8%. The day with the highest air traffic in the UK was September 6th and the “quietest” was December 25th.
Destination airports with the most departures from the UK The top 10 airports in the UK in 2024, based on seat capacity, were Amsterdam, Dublin, Dubai, Alicante, Palma, Malaga, Tenerife, Barcelona, ??Paris, and New York.
Globally, American Airlines offered the largest number of seats, followed by Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines. Ryanair was fifth in the ranking, and the only airline outside the US.
The world’s busiest airports were Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Dubai, Tokyo, Heathrow and Dallas.
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