Airline passenger growth in US last year ‘slowest’ among top global markets

The US remained the world’s biggest airline passenger market last year but recorded the slowest growth amongst the top ten global markets.

New data released by Iata shows 890.1 million arriving and departing passengers in the US but growth of just 1.6% over 2024.

China was the second-biggest passenger market, with 776.1 million passengers in 2025, up 4.8% year on year.

The UK was third, with growth of 3.4% to 269.7 million passengers, ahead of Spain, up 5% to 252.7 million.

Japan was the fifth largest passenger market, up 9.2% to 223.5 million, followed by India at 218.2 million, Italy at 187.3 million, Germany at 163.8 million, France at 152.6 million and Turkey at 129.3 million.    

Several central Asian countries were among the world’s fastest-growing passenger markets, according to Iata.

Kazakhstan recorded a 40% year on year surge to 18.1 million passengers while Uzbekistan welcomed 12.5 million passengers, up 16.9% on the previous year. 

Outside of central Asia, Vietnam also recorded strong growth, with 80.9 million passengers, up 14.8% year on year.

Meanwhile, the number of international premium class passengers flying in business or first class rose by 4.5% to reach 109.7 million, accounting for 5.5% of all international airline travellers.

Europe remained the biggest market for premium travel, with 39.7 million passengers in 2025.

However, North America (10.4%) and the Middle East (9.5%) accounted for the highest shares of premium class passengers as a proportion of total passenger numbers. 

Latin America saw the largest jump in premium class passengers, rising 22.1% to 4 million.