IATA presents its WATS 2024 report: Latin America among the world's busiest routes

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently released its annual World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) 2024 report, a publication that compiles data from more than 240 global airlines on demand, capacity, operational performance, fleet, and busiest airport pairs.

Growth by cabin class
The study revealed that international travel in premium classes (business and first) grew 11.8% year-over-year, slightly outpacing the 11.5% growth in economy class. In total, there were 116.9 million premium passengers in 2024, equivalent to 6% of the international total.

The Asia-Pacific region led the growth in premium travelers, up 22.8% to approximately 21 million passengers, although its economy class grew even more: 28.6% to 500.8 million passengers. Premium class growth outpaced economy in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America. Europe was the largest premium market (39.3 million), while the Middle East had the highest proportion of premium passengers.

Busiest Routes: Focus on Latin America
In Latin America, the Bogotá–Medellín (BOG–MDE) route was the busiest in 2024 with 3.8 million passengers, making it the busiest regional corridor. Globally, the busiest route was Jeju–Seoul (CJU–GMP) in Asia-Pacific with 13.2 million passengers. Outside that region, only the Jeddah–Riyadh route is among the ten busiest in the world.

Dominant Aircraft
Boeing and Airbus narrow-body aircraft dominated global operations:

Boeing 737 (all variants): approximately 10 million flights and 2.44 trillion ASKs (Available Seat Kilometers), up 6%. 

Airbus A320: 7.9 million flights and 1.7 billion ASKs;

Airbus A321: 3.4 million flights and 12.5% increase in ASK.

The Airbus A220 stood out for having the highest growth in flights (21.7%) and ASK (20.4%). 

Main markets by country

The United States maintained its lead with 876 million passengers in 2024, growing 5.2% thanks to its robust domestic market. China came in second with 741 million (+18.7%). They were followed by the United Kingdom (261 million, +7.3%), Spain (241 million, +10.7%), India (211 million, +11.1%), and Japan (205 million, +18.6%).

Source: IATA.