2024 Smashed All-Time Airline Industry Records: 4 Key Takeaways
Skift Take
A global shift towards higher capacity aircraft is offering more seats onboard fewer flights – but huge sustainability questions remain.
Despite geopolitical shocks, economic worries, and chronic aircraft supply issues, 2024 was a record-breaking year for the airline industry.
New figures released Thursday show that globally in 2024, more seats were available on passenger flights than any other year. A total of 5.85 billion were on offer, comfortably beating 2019’s previous record by 2%.
Here are four key takeaways from the latest data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.
1: More Seats but Fewer FlightsYou’d be forgiven for thinking that record-breaking passenger capacity requires more flights, but the opposite happened between 2019 and 2024. The total number of scheduled flights reached 36.4 million in 2024 – around 5% below 2019 levels.
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