Air travel demand for 2025 ended the year with record highs, shows the latest IATA data, and director general Willie Walsh says the industry’s growth has now aligned with historical growth patterns after the robust post-pandemic rebound.
Total full-year demand in 2025, measured in revenue passenger kms, rose 5.3% compared to 2024 while total capacity, measured in available seat kms, was up 5.2% in 2025.
The overall passenger load factor climbed up 0.1 percentage point to 83.6%, setting a new industry record for full-year traffic, says IATA.
Breaking down the numbers fur ther, international demand in 2025 increased 7.1% on 2024, and capac ity rose 6.8%. Domestic full-year demand for 2025 was also up 2.4%, year-on-year, while capacity was up 2.5%.
. . . Asia-Pacific Leads
Asia-Pacific airlines posted a 10.9% rise in full year international 2025 traffic compared to 2024—once again leading growth.
At the same time Latin America, African and Middle Eastern airlines also achieved notable year on-year growth, up 8.6%, 7.8% and 6.7%, respectively, says IATA.
. . . New Focus
With demand return, there’s a new focus for the sector. Walsh says the strong and contin uous increase in demand puts into sharp focus two key challenges for the commercial aviation industry— decarbonisation and supply chain. Decarbonisation, he says, will protect future long-term growth.
On supply chain challenges, Walsh highlights the issues faced last year when people clearly wanted to travel more, but airlines scrambled to accommodate the demand due to unreliable delivery schedules, maintenance capacity constraints, and resultant cost increases.
“It’s vital that 2025 proves to be the nadir of the supply chain crisis, and 2026 marks a rebound,” he adds.
. . . Cargo
Air cargo delivered a strong performance in 2025, with demand up 3.4% year-on-year.
IATA notes that global e-commerce strength drove volumes, even with trading relationships with rising tariffs, the removal of de minimis tariff exemptions, and continuing policy uncertainty.
