IDA total - Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide

The value for Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide in IDA total was 556,641 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 50 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 1,044,693 in 2018 and a minimum value of 273,000 in 1972.

Definition: Registered carrier departures worldwide are domestic takeoffs and takeoffs abroad of air carriers registered in the country.

Source: International Civil Aviation Organization, Civil Aviation Statistics of the World and ICAO staff estimates.

See also:

Year Value
1970 294,200
1971 289,400
1972 273,000
1973 310,200
1974 293,200
1975 345,900
1976 376,300
1977 348,500
1978 367,900
1979 387,600
1980 420,300
1981 421,300
1982 405,800
1983 411,200
1984 452,900
1985 458,900
1986 452,100
1987 459,400
1988 481,100
1989 477,800
1990 475,400
1991 461,400
1992 451,600
1993 409,300
1994 461,700
1995 425,200
1996 436,500
1997 503,300
1998 514,200
1999 476,600
2000 480,579
2001 465,378
2002 399,017
2003 392,264
2004 427,339
2005 436,514
2006 453,804
2007 495,789
2008 454,810
2009 473,201
2010 710,308
2011 788,956
2012 775,492
2013 843,266
2014 869,131
2015 886,922
2016 904,766
2017 983,803
2018 1,044,693
2019 1,011,535
2020 556,641

Development Relevance: Transport infrastructure - highways, railways, ports and waterways, and airports and air traffic control systems - and the services that flow from it are crucial to the activities of households, producers, and governments. Because performance indicators vary widely by transport mode and focus (whether physical infrastructure or the services flowing from that infrastructure), highly specialized and carefully specified indicators are required to measure a country's transport infrastructure. The air transport industry a vital engine of global socio-economic growth. It is of vital importance for economic development, creating direct and indirect employment, supporting tourism and local businesses, and stimulating foreign investment and international trade. Economic growth, technological change, market liberalization, the growth of low cost carriers, airport congestion, oil prices and other trends affect commercial aviation throughout the world.

Limitations and Exceptions: Countries submit air transport data to Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on the basis of standard instructions and definitions issued by ICAO. In many cases, however, the data include estimates by ICAO for nonreporting carriers. Where possible, these estimates are based on previous submissions supplemented by information published by the air carriers, such as flight schedules. The data cover the air traffic carried on scheduled services, but changes in air transport regulations in Europe have made it more difficult to classify traffic as scheduled or nonscheduled. Thus recent increases shown for some European countries may be due to changes in the classification of air traffic rather than actual growth. In the case of multinational air carriers owned by partner States, traffic within each partner State is shown separately as domestic and all other traffic as international. "Foreign" cabotage traffic (i.e. traffic carried between city-pairs in a State other than the one where the reporting carrier has its principal place of business) is shown as international traffic. A technical stop does not result in any flight stage being classified differently than would have been the case had the technical stop not been made. For countries with few air carriers or only one, the addition or discontinuation of a home-based air carrier may cause significant changes in air traffic. Data for transport sectors are not always internationally comparable. Unlike for demographic statistics, national income accounts, and international trade data, the collection of infrastructure data has not been "internationalized."

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The air transport data represent the total (international and domestic) scheduled traffic carried by the air carriers registered in a country. For statistical uses, departures are equal to the number of landings made or flight stages flown. A flight stage is the operation of an aircraft from take-off to its next landing. A flight stage is classified as either international or domestic. International flight stage is one or both terminals in the territory of a State, other than the State in which the air carrier has its principal place of business. Domestic flight stage is not classifiable as international. Domestic flight stages include all flight stages flown between points within the domestic boundaries of a State by an air carrier whose principal place of business is in that State. Flight stages between a State and territories belonging to it, as well as any flight stages between two such territories, should be classified as domestic. This applies even though a stage may cross international waters or over the territory of another State.

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Infrastructure Indicators

Sub-Topic: Transportation