OECD members - Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide

The value for Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide in OECD members was 11,936,260 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 50 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 23,943,030 in 2019 and a minimum value of 7,633,500 in 1975.

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 8,147,600
1971 8,263,700
1972 8,254,700
1973 8,409,000
1974 7,796,100
1975 7,633,500
1976 7,824,900
1977 8,158,300
1978 8,367,500
1979 8,666,100
1980 8,640,600
1981 8,176,300
1982 8,193,100
1983 8,508,000
1984 8,971,400
1985 9,443,800
1986 10,152,300
1987 10,633,200
1988 11,155,300
1989 11,302,500
1990 11,832,500
1991 11,517,500
1992 11,936,900
1993 12,024,600
1994 13,152,600
1995 13,849,900
1996 14,663,400
1997 15,188,600
1998 15,371,000
1999 16,409,600
2000 17,624,500
2001 17,392,600
2002 16,063,700
2003 16,602,400
2004 18,407,020
2005 18,709,110
2006 18,809,260
2007 19,348,840
2008 18,688,260
2009 18,650,100
2010 20,343,250
2011 20,455,830
2012 20,321,140
2013 20,343,690
2014 20,394,470
2015 20,787,800
2016 21,370,520
2017 21,586,690
2018 21,882,850
2019 23,943,030
2020 11,936,260

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