In 2025, the number of international premium-class passengers — business and first class — reached 109.7 million, up 4.5% year-on-year; and accounting for 5.5% of all international travellers, according to the latest edition of IATA’s World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) that provides comprehensive statistical data through to 2025.
In that same year, Latin America saw the largest jump in premium-class passengers, rising 22.1% to 4.0 million. 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.
Asia Pacific dominated the ranking of the world’s busiest airport pairs, with Jeju International Airport-Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport (CJU-GMP) remaining the most popular route globally, with 13.3 million passengers traveling between the two airports.
In the top 10, only one airport pair — Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport-Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport (JED-RUH) — was outside the Asia Pacific region. All of the top 10 busiest airport pairs were domestic connections.
An overview of the regions found that:
- Cape Town International Airport-Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport (CPT-JNB) was Africa’s busiest airport pair in 2025, with 3.4 million passengers.
- Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport-Medellín’s José María Córdova International Airport (BOG-MDE) was the busiest airport pair in Latin America with 3.5 million passengers.
- Barcelona’s Josep Tarradellas-El Prat Airport-Palma de Mallorca (BCN-PMI) remained the busiest airport pair in Europe with 2.1 million passengers. Stockholm Arlanda Airport-Malmö Airport (ARN-MMX) was the airport pair with the fastest growth in Europe, with passenger numbers surging 85% to 271,031.
- New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport-Los Angeles International Airport (JFK-LAX) was the busiest domestic airport pair in North America with 2.2 million passengers, and JFK-London Heathrow (JFK-LHR) was the busiest international airport pair from North America with 2.1 million passengers.
As for top passenger markets by country, the United States remained the world’s biggest passenger market, with 890.1 million passengers (both arriving and departing) recorded in 2025.
However, it recorded the slowest growth of the world’s top 10 markets, up just 1.6% year-on-year compared to 2024. China was the second-biggest passenger market, with 776.1 million passengers in 2025, a growth of 4.8% compared to 2024.
Several Central Asian countries were among the world’s fastest-growing passenger markets. Kazakhstan recorded a 40.0% year-on-year surge in 2025 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 in 2025, up 14.8% year-on-year.
For more, go to www.iata.org .
