ACI: Passenger Growth Expected To Continue In Americas

Air traffic in both North America and Latin America is poised for steady growth in 2025, with increasing numbers of passengers flocking to airports in the post-pandemic years, according to Airports Council International (ACI).

In a joint presentation here at the Routes Americas conference, representatives of ACI-North America (NA) and ACI-Latin America-Caribbean (LAC) painted a positive picture of air transport in the Americas, noting that post-pandemic “pent-up demand” remains apparent.

“Fundamentally, it's looking pretty good for the U.S. and Canada,” ACI-NA Executive Vice President Matt Cornelius said. He noted the number of flights in the U.S. is down from before the pandemic, but passengers are now above 2019 levels as airlines upgauge aircraft.

For the January-October period in 2024, U.S. airports collectively handled 926 million passengers, up 5.4% over the same period in 2023 and up 5.1% over the first 10 months of 2019, according to Cornelius.

U.S. international passenger traffic rose at a faster rate than domestic traffic in 2024, he pointed out. U.S. airports handled 213 million international passengers in the first 10 months of 2024, up 9.1% year-over-year and up 4.5% over the same period in 2019. Domestic passengers totaled 712 million in the first 10 months of 2024, up 4.3% year-over-year and up 5.2% over the first 10 months of 2019.

The 8.11 million airline flights operated in the U.S. in the first 10 months of 2024 was up 4.7% over the same period in 2023, but down 5.1% from 8.55 million flights in the 2019 January-October period. Even so, capacity as measured in available seat miles (ASM) was up 3.7% in the first 10 months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2019.

“Those are very good numbers,” Cornelius said of 2024 traffic growth in the U.S. “You can see some of the trends that are happening in U.S. aviation. Fewer flights versus 2019—still down 5% in terms of the number of flights—but more passengers.”

He added: “The other piece is 9% growth in international traffic—that's huge. [International] continues to be a focus of growth for a lot of airlines. U.S-to-Europe is being described as a red-hot market. You're seeing carriers expand into non-traditional locations to take advantage of people's willingness and interest to travel internationally.”

Canada Rises

Canada experienced strong passenger growth in 2024, Cornelius noted. The country’s airports handled 73.6 million passengers in the first 10 months of 2024, up 10.1% year-over-year and up 2.1% over the January-October period in 2019. ASMs in Canada in the first 10 months of 2024 totaled 148 billion, up 12.5% year-over-year and up 3.4% over the same period in 2019.

But the growth in Canada is uneven, Cornelius said, describing the current state of the market as “a tale of two cities.”

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“The large cities are doing very, very well, and they're driving a lot of that growth,” he explained. “Regional airports in Canada continue to struggle with air service coming back. [Canada’s] numbers look good, but if you dig deeper into the actual traffic at some of these airports, it's not even across the board, and that's something that's creating a political issue in Canada.”

Latin Potential

Latin American and Caribbean airports collectively handled 746 million passengers in 2024, up 4% year-over-year, according to Francisco Medela, ACI-LAC’s Industry affairs director. He said the figure is expected to grow to 776 million annual passengers in 2025, which would be an increase of 4.1% over 2024.

“Latin America has shown a lot of resilience,” Medela said, noting the region continues to have tremendous upside growth potential as more people switch from buses to air transport. ACI-LAC projects passenger traffic in Latin America and the Caribbean will more than double from 2024 levels to 1.6 billion passengers per year by 2050.

Medela called for governments in Latin America and the Caribbean to liberalize air transport regulations to enable more robust networks. “Air connectivity is lower compared to other regions, with nonstop flights and LCC presence lagging behind,” he explained.

Medela said that where liberalization has occurred, there is “greater access to low-cost travel, reduced fares, traffic growth, more nonstop connections and boosted local tourism."