Global Premium Class Travel Rose 11.8% in 2024: IATA

International premium class travel—business and first class—grew by 11.8%, outpacing growth in global economy travel of 11.5%. The total number of international premium-class travellers in 2024 was 116.9 million (6% of total international passengers), according to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) report.

The WATS report, which was released on Monday, said that a total of 116.9 million passengers flew in business or first-class last year, accounting for 6% of all international travellers,

Updated annually with data from over 240 international airlines, the WATS database provides a complete overview of airline metrics related to demand, supply, and performance.

The report includes a detailed breakdown of scheduled passenger and cargo traffic demand, scheduled passenger and cargo capacity, overview of the global airline fleet, and top airport pairs, IATA said.

APAC Leads

Asia Pacific led the regions in terms of percentage growth with a y-o-y growth of 22.8% with 21 million premium passengers—although it was outpaced in growth by economy class passenger numbers, up 28.6% to 500.8 million passengers.

Growth in premium travel exceeded economy class travel in Europe, Latin America, Middle East and North America. Europe remained the largest market for international premium travel, with 39.3 million premium passengers while premium travellers as a percentage of all travellers were highest in the Middle East at 14.7%.

Top Airport Pairs

Asia Pacific dominated the ranking for the world’s busiest airport pairs, with Jeju-Seoul (CJU-GMP) the most popular route globally, with 13.2 million passengers flying between the two airports in 2024. In the top 10, only one airport pair—Jeddah-Riyadh (JED-RUH) —was only route outside the Asia Pacific region in the global top 10.

Bogota-Medellin (BOG-MDE) led Latin America with 3.8 million passengers. Cape Town-Johannesburg (JNB-CPT) was the busiest in Africa with 3.3 million. New York–Los Angeles (JFK-LAX) was North America’s busiest with 2.2 million, while Barcelona–Palma de Mallorca (BCN-PMI) led Europe with 2 million.

Among aircraft types, Boeing’s 737 series operated the most flights globally at 10 million, accounting for 2.4 trillion Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs). Airbus’s A320 followed with 7.9 million flights and 1.7 trillion ASKs, while the A321 recorded 3.4 million flights and 1.1 trillion ASKs.

Top Passenger Countries

The US remains the world’s biggest aviation market with 876 million passengers in 2024 on the strength of its domestic market, growing 5.2% year-on-year. China was the second-biggest passenger market, with 741 million passengers, a growth of 18.7% compared to 2023.

These two markets were followed by the UK (261 million), Spain (241 million), India (211 million), and Japan (205 million) respectively. These figures included all passengers (international and domestic) departing or arriving in each country, the report said.