INTERNATIONAL AIR PASSENGER TRAFFIC IN THE U.S. REACHES A NEW HIGH

The year 2014 has brought a substantial increase in the number of passengers, both coming into and departing from the U.S. soil. Overall, the increase represents 7 percent while the total number of passengers reached 197.3 million. Out of that number, 86.4 million were U.S. citizens.

The latter upped the percentage by the same figure of 7 percent while citizens from other countries brought a 6 percent increase as roughly 110 million boarded planes to and from the U.S.. The data were provided by the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office.

While there were considerably more passengers in 2014, airlines from the United States only carried 102 million of them as the rest of 95 million preferred to embark on planes belonging to foreign companies, causing a 10 percent increase for the non-U.S. airlines.

For 2014, United Airlines ranked as number 1 with roughly 30 million passengers carried, followed by Delta Airlines with 23 million. Lufthansa comes in at number 7 with over 5 million and Air France closes the top 10 with just under 3 and a half million travelers.

Out of the total of almost 200 million passengers, 146.5 million took trips overseas, 64 million of them being citizens of the U.S., representing a 6 percent increase from the previous year.

In relation to the traffic to and from the United States, Cancun International Airport had the largest increase with over 7 million passengers. However, Heathrow ranked first on the list with 14.5 million travelers. Toronto's Pearson airport ranks second with 11.6 million and a 7.3 percent increase in traffic.

As expected, besides U.S. citizens, the largest numbers of travelers came from their neighboring countries as 27.8 million Canadians either came in or left U.S. soil. 23.2 million Mexican citizens did the same. China however brings the largest percentage growth (16.6 percent) with 5 million passengers. UK came in third with 17.8 million.

The JFK International Airport in New York represented the largest hub with roughly 28.4 million travelers while the airport in Houston saw the largest growth, roughly 10 percent. 20 million passengers went through the Miami International Airport while 19.3 million came into or left Los Angeles.

Top 10 Countries for Passenger Traffic To/From U.S.

Source: U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office