IATA: US, China and Japan account for majority of 3.8bn passengers in 2016

IATA reported (03-Mar-2017) an estimated 3.8 billion air passenger departures globally in 2016, an increase from 3.5 billion in 2015. Almost 50% (1.9 billion) were domestic departures, 35% (1.3 billion) were international departures and the remaining 16% (604 million) were connecting departures. Details include:

• The top three ranking markets remain unchanged in 2016 with the US (815 million passengers), China (490 million) and Japan (141 million). The number of passenger departures in China increased 10.3% year-on-year;
• India jumped up two places to fourth with 131 million departures and growth of 20%;
• Indonesia moved up from fourth to sixth with 116 million departures and a growth rate of 12.9%;
• Brazil slipped from fifth to ninth with passenger numbers decreasing 10.4% to over 100 million. [more - original PR]