European Union - Air transport, passengers carried

The value for Air transport, passengers carried in European Union was 238,987,200 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 50 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 803,722,600 in 2019 and a minimum value of 47,767,900 in 1970.

Definition: Air passengers carried include both domestic and international aircraft passengers 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 47,767,900
1971 52,648,900
1972 58,293,200
1973 62,913,900
1974 64,977,900
1975 67,971,100
1976 73,633,200
1977 79,541,900
1978 86,861,500
1979 93,006,700
1980 93,554,600
1981 96,063,300
1982 98,607,500
1983 101,810,300
1984 106,237,300
1985 112,309,600
1986 114,465,700
1987 125,896,200
1988 136,470,700
1989 147,372,400
1990 157,891,000
1991 150,528,000
1992 164,292,000
1993 169,958,600
1994 182,625,300
1995 193,536,800
1996 213,329,200
1997 235,129,900
1998 245,065,100
1999 266,190,600
2000 288,449,300
2001 286,388,900
2002 287,161,400
2003 317,807,100
2004 347,767,700
2005 359,471,500
2006 390,742,900
2007 425,646,400
2008 427,781,300
2009 419,908,200
2010 442,721,400
2011 468,821,200
2012 465,108,900
2013 471,018,700
2014 490,844,600
2015 529,467,500
2016 565,289,200
2017 605,233,500
2018 640,084,500
2019 803,722,600
2020 238,987,200

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: The air transport data represent the total (international and domestic) scheduled traffic carried by the air carriers registered in a country. Countries submit air transport data to International 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: 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. The number of passengers carried is obtained by counting each passenger on a particular flight (with one flight number) once only and not repeatedly on each individual stage of that flight, with a single exception that a passenger flying on both the international and domestic stages of the same flight should be counted as both a domestic and an international passenger.

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Infrastructure Indicators

Sub-Topic: Transportation