New Delhi: A record of 4.4 billion people flew last year across the world registering a growth in passengers’ air-travel of 6.9pc over 2017 which also represented an additional 284 million trips by air. This has come up in the performance figures of 2018 Airline Industry Statistics, released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), showing that global air connectivity continues to become more accessible and more efficient.
The top five nationalities travelling (international routes) were United Kingdom (126.2 million, or 8.6pc of all passengers), United States (111.5 million, or 7.6pc of all passengers), China (97 million, or 6.6pc of all passengers), Germany (94.3 million, or 6.4pc of all passengers) and France (59.8 million, or 4.1pc of all passengers), the IATA World Air Transport Statistics (2019 WATS) said.
