U.S. International Air Passenger and Freight Statistics Report

Overview

The U.S. International Air Passenger and Freight Statistics report has been developed to provide the public with additional access to international aviation data. The report is restricted to commercial traffic that travels on nonstop segments between international points and the United States. The data includes totals for departures, passengers, seats, and freight. 

U.S. International Passenger and Freight Reports

Table Data

• U.S. International Air Passenger and Freight Reports
• International Airports and Airport Codes
• International Carriers and Carrier Codes
• Metadata Table 

Raw data for the International Passenger and Freight Reports can be found at DOT's public data portal, using the links below. This portal allows the public to access and extract data sets for multiple time periods using user-specified criteria. Please click on the following links to open new pages to the table data:

• Passenger
• Freight
• Departures
• Seats

Technical Notes

This report represents a limited aspect of international travel - nonstop segment flows into and out of the United States . These airports serve as international gateways and will have high numbers in this report, but users should  understand that some portion of this traffic continued on a connecting flight to their final destination. For example, U.S. carriers serve some international points only through an international connection; therefore it might appear as if no U.S. carrier serves a certain international point when in fact U.S. carrier traffic is first flowing through a connecting city. Figures for U.S. nonstop market share do not necessarily correlate to the total service provided to that point by all U.S. carriers.

The widespread use of code-share agreements between U.S. and foreign carriers also influences this data. Under a code-share agreement, it is common for a passenger to fly on an aircraft owned and operated by a different airline than the one from which they bought their ticket. The data in this report represents the air carrier that operated the passenger or cargo flight reported. In some cases, regulatory impediments make it difficult for U.S. carriers to operate adequate international service using their own equipment. U.S. carriers compensate by marketing and selling tickets under their own code to those destinations while the foreign code-share partner  is responsible for operating the flight and providing transport. Therefore, low U.S. market share in certain restricted markets is not indicative of the true proportion of passengers purchasing tickets from U.S. carriers. Code-sharing and network- flow data issues also apply to cargo shipments.

The data in this report is presented in a top-down format. Table 1 provides gross summaries of U.S.-International passengers, capacity, and freight. The same data is then broken down by world area and by country in Tables 2 through 5. Scheduled passenger data for the largest domestic gateway cities, the largest foreign gateway cities, and the largest U.S.- International city-pairs can be found in Tables 6 through 8. All data is derived from the T-100 Segment reports submitted to the Department by U.S. and foreign carriers.

About the T-100 Program

The T-100 program was instituted by the Department of Transportation effective January 1, 1990. It covers traffic reports of foreign airlines operating to and from the United States and traffic reports of the domestic and international operations of U.S. airlines. The airlines submit these reports monthly to the Department’s Office of Airline Information (OAI) of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The rules governing disclosure of the International T-100 data provide that data be kept confidential for a period of six months beyond the reporting date.

Users of this report should take the following points into consideration:

• The T-100 segment data includes all traffic arriving at U.S. airports and departing from U.S. airports on nonstop commercial international flights.
• T-100 segment data represents only nonstop service. The absence of U.S. nonstop service, or a low U.S. flag market share, does not necessarily correlate to the amount of service provided to that point by U.S. carriers. Many international destinations are served by U.S. carriers via connecting points.
• Traffic on U.S.– International routes that serve as connecting gateways will likely exceed the number of true Origin & Destination passengers in the market because of a significant percentage of traffic connecting through the gateway to other markets.
• T-100 data is reported according to the operating carrier. Code-share relationships may cause U.S. carriers to seem under-represented in certain restrictive markets. In extensive code-share relationships, U.S. airlines sell a large number of tickets to passengers with transport provided by the foreign code-share partner. 
• Cargo carriers also employ the use of interline and connecting networks; therefore, cargo data is susceptible to the same reporting shortcomings in this report as passenger data.
• Freight tons do not include mail.