World Air Passengers
Airlines carried 4.27 billion passengers worldwide in 2023 (3.23 billion a year earlier).
Updated July 12, 2026
World Air Passengers
passengers carried per yearDownload this statistic
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How this statistic is built
DefinitionPassengers carried by air worldwide per year (ICAO data published in the WDI). Each flight segment counts a passenger once.
LimitationsSegment-based counting means one journey with a connection counts twice. Updates lag by a year or more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Airlines carried 4.27 billion passengers worldwide in 2023 (3.23 billion a year earlier).
World Air Passengers rose 32.2% compared with 2022, reaching 2023's reading.
World Bank — World Development Indicators (IS.AIR.PSGR), World aggregate. License: CC BY 4.0. StatsPanda charts the original series directly and cites it on every download.
The underlying series is released on a annual cadence. This page was last updated July 12, 2026, and refreshes with each source release.