India recorded 211 million air passengers in 2024, registering a 11.1% year-on-year increase and securing its place as the fifth-largest aviation market globally, according to the newly released World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) report from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The data shows India surpassing Japan (205 million passengers) and closing in on Spain (241 million), as the country continues to benefit from a growing domestic network, airport infrastructure expansion, and strong travel demand.
The IATA report, compiled from over 240 airlines worldwide, offers a comprehensive view of the airline industry’s performance across key metrics such as passenger and cargo traffic, capacity, fleet utilisation, and airport route data.
One of the headline findings from the 2024 WATS report is the return of international premium-class travel, which grew by 11.8% — slightly ahead of economy class travel growth at 11.5%. In total, 116.9 million international passengers flew in premium cabins, representing 6% of all international travellers.
While premium travel demand increased across all major regions, the Asia Pacific region posted the highest year-on-year growth at 22.8%, reaching 21 million premium passengers. However, the region also saw a much larger surge in economy class travel, which rose by 28.6% to 500.8 million passengers.
“Growth in premium travel exceeded economy class travel in Europe, Latin America, Middle East and North America,” IATA noted in its report.
Europe remained the world’s largest market for international premium travel at 39.3 million passengers, while the Middle East had the highest share of premium passengers, with 14.7% of all international travellers in that category.
The WATS report highlighted the continued strength of Asia Pacific in route traffic. The region accounted for nine of the ten busiest airport pairs globally, with the Jeju–Seoul (CJU–GMP) route in South Korea topping the list at 13.2 million passengers in 2024.
The only route outside Asia Pacific to feature in the top 10 was Jeddah–Riyadh (JED–RUH) in Saudi Arabia.
Other top regional routes included:
Aircraft data from the report shows that narrowbody aircraft remained the backbone of global airline operations in 2024.
Note: ASKs are a standard industry metric used to measure airline seating capacity across distances flown.
The United States retained its position as the world’s largest aviation market, largely due to the strength of its domestic sector. China, with a sharp 18.7% growth, continued its post-pandemic recovery with 741 million passengers.
The report reflects an industry in broad-based recovery and expansion, with both mature and emerging markets showing strong growth. For India, the data confirms a pivotal moment — as one of the few countries to cross 200 million passengers and sustain double-digit annual growth.
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