The National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) provided a new report on air travel data from December 2023, noting that U.S.-international air traffic passenger totals rose 102.5 percent from the December 2019 pre-pandemic total.?

21.6 million travelers traveled between the U.S. and other countries via air in December. It was a 15.4 percent increase from the same month in 2022 and went beyond the pre-pandemic level from 2019.?

Non-U.S. citizens arriving in the U.S. totaled 5.2 million during the last month of the year, an increase year-over-year of 19 percent, though this number continues being lower than the pre-pandemic average by 7.6 percent, something that experts, including the U.S. Travel Association, believes could be rectified with enhances such as making visa wait times faster and modernizing the international air travel experience.?

Overseas visitor arrivals totaled 3 million in December, which is the tenth consecutive month that the U.S. has seen over 2 million travelers enter the country, though it remains 88.1 percent of the pre-pandemic visitor volume from December 2019.?

Over six million Americans left the country for international destinations, an increase of 12.6 year-over-year and exceeding the pre-pandemic level by 16.6 percent. The most popular countries for arrivals and departures in December were Mexico (3.83 million), Canada (2.56 million), the U.K. (1.5 million), the Dominican Republic (922,000) and Germany (807,000).?

Regionally, European air travel to and from the U.S. is growing year over year, yet remains 4.1 percent lower than the pre-pandemic totals. U.S. departures to Europe rose 7.4 percent higher than in December 2019.?

South America, Central America and the Caribbean air travel to and from the U.S. rose 19 percent year-over-year and grew 17.3 percent higher than its 2019 total.?

Asia remains the hardest hit, since its reopening to tourism was much later than many other regions in the world. While air travel between the U.S. and Asia grew 38.5 percent from 2022, it remains 29.8 percent lower than its pre-pandemic level.?

Airports that serve the most international travelers are JFK, Miami, LAX, San Francisco and Newark. Airports that fly to the most U.S. locations are London Heathrow, Cancun, Toronto, Mexico and Paris (CDG).?

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