Flight Friday: Global Passenger Flight Hours Reach New Heights In 2024

With global passenger traffic peaking in July and August of every year during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer vacation period, this week’s Flight Friday looks at aggregated passenger flight hours from January to July over the 2019-24 period.

Over this time frame, 2019 was the most recent “best” year for total hours, but with the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX fleet in 2019 this was not without its flaws. Starting the year at around 6 million flight hours in January 2019, this grew to a little under 7 million in July 2019. However, the highest January on record for the period was in 2020, a year when traffic was severely curtailed following the outbreak of COVID-19.

In 2020 and 2021, there was incremental growth as the world got to grips with the pandemic but was at around half, and then two-thirds, of 2019 levels. However, both years maintained the profile of starting lower in January and rising to a peak in July.

As the recovery really kicked in, 2023 saw figures within 10% of 2019 levels and July 2023 almost matched its pre-pandemic equivalent month. At this point, there was still a delay in the Asia-Pacific region’s recovery with fewer passengers traveling.

Now, in 2024, all monthly passenger flight hours are above 2019, which is leading the way to setting a new baseline for which we can benchmark the industry.

This year has not been without its challenges though. Workforce and supply chain issues, caused by the COVID “hangover,” are still making it difficult for operators to get their aircraft—especially engines—into maintenance shops. For similar reasons, aircraft manufacturers are struggling to build enough and deliver at the rate that the industry needs to allow older, less efficient aircraft to retire, and thus, make progress on the net-zero ambition.

There are still several bumps on the journey ahead, but in terms of flight hours, we are setting a new benchmark.

This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization tool.