World - Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide

The value for Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide in World was 20,458,480 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 50 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 39,203,780 in 2019 and a minimum value of 9,244,700 in 1975.

Definition: Registered carrier departures worldwide are domestic takeoffs and takeoffs abroad of air carriers registered in the country.

Source: International Civil Aviation Organization, Civil Aviation Statistics of the World and ICAO staff estimates.

See also:

Year Value
1970 9,448,300
1971 9,504,500
1973 9,764,900
1974 9,254,900
1975 9,244,700
1976 9,562,900
1977 9,915,900
1978 10,183,700
1979 10,653,400
1980 10,704,900
1981 10,270,100
1982 10,335,800
1983 10,758,700
1984 11,404,000
1985 11,897,900
1986 12,677,000
1987 13,244,800
1988 13,880,900
1989 14,021,100
1990 14,583,900
1991 14,360,900
1992 14,918,800
1993 15,986,200
1994 17,218,900
1995 18,008,200
1996 18,953,600
1997 19,546,600
1998 19,653,200
1999 20,736,600
2000 22,008,660
2001 22,264,220
2002 20,817,390
2003 21,282,620
2004 23,752,620
2005 24,215,710
2006 24,829,380
2007 26,016,010
2008 25,498,090
2009 26,122,520
2010 29,637,930
2011 30,564,980
2012 30,771,380
2013 31,464,400
2014 32,339,780
2015 33,362,840
2016 34,687,960
2017 35,703,840
2018 36,828,230
2019 39,203,780
2020 20,458,480

Development Relevance: Transport infrastructure - highways, railways, ports and waterways, and airports and air traffic control systems - and the services that flow from it are crucial to the activities of households, producers, and governments. Because performance indicators vary widely by transport mode and focus (whether physical infrastructure or the services flowing from that infrastructure), highly specialized and carefully specified indicators are required to measure a country's transport infrastructure. The air transport industry a vital engine of global socio-economic growth. It is of vital importance for economic development, creating direct and indirect employment, supporting tourism and local businesses, and stimulating foreign investment and international trade. Economic growth, technological change, market liberalization, the growth of low cost carriers, airport congestion, oil prices and other trends affect commercial aviation throughout the world.

Limitations and Exceptions: Countries submit air transport data to Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on the basis of standard instructions and definitions issued by ICAO. In many cases, however, the data include estimates by ICAO for nonreporting carriers. Where possible, these estimates are based on previous submissions supplemented by information published by the air carriers, such as flight schedules. The data cover the air traffic carried on scheduled services, but changes in air transport regulations in Europe have made it more difficult to classify traffic as scheduled or nonscheduled. Thus recent increases shown for some European countries may be due to changes in the classification of air traffic rather than actual growth. In the case of multinational air carriers owned by partner States, traffic within each partner State is shown separately as domestic and all other traffic as international. "Foreign" cabotage traffic (i.e. traffic carried between city-pairs in a State other than the one where the reporting carrier has its principal place of business) is shown as international traffic. A technical stop does not result in any flight stage being classified differently than would have been the case had the technical stop not been made. For countries with few air carriers or only one, the addition or discontinuation of a home-based air carrier may cause significant changes in air traffic. Data for transport sectors are not always internationally comparable. Unlike for demographic statistics, national income accounts, and international trade data, the collection of infrastructure data has not been "internationalized."

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The air transport data represent the total (international and domestic) scheduled traffic carried by the air carriers registered in a country. For statistical uses, departures are equal to the number of landings made or flight stages flown. A flight stage is the operation of an aircraft from take-off to its next landing. A flight stage is classified as either international or domestic. International flight stage is one or both terminals in the territory of a State, other than the State in which the air carrier has its principal place of business. Domestic flight stage is not classifiable as international. Domestic flight stages include all flight stages flown between points within the domestic boundaries of a State by an air carrier whose principal place of business is in that State. Flight stages between a State and territories belonging to it, as well as any flight stages between two such territories, should be classified as domestic. This applies even though a stage may cross international waters or over the territory of another State.

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Infrastructure Indicators

Sub-Topic: Transportation