The US commercial aviation market is edging toward a one billion passenger milestone.
A record 965 million passengers flew on airlines in and out of the country in 2017, according to Department of Transportation data.
That is up 3.4% on the 933 million who flew in 2016.
The DOT broke it down to 741.6 million passengers who took domestic flights and 223.4 million passengers on international flights that departed or arrived in the US.
The numbers include journeys on US and foreign airlines.
Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago O’Hare were the busiest air hubs, while Southwest Airlines flew the most with 157.7 million passengers.
Next were Delta Air Lines American and United Airlines which all carried more than 100 million passsengers each, followed by a large gap down to JetBlue’s 40 million.
More than 50 million passenger journeys were by regional affiliate carriers SkyWest and Republic which operate regional brands for the big three carriers, but were recorded separately by the DOT.
DOT data showed British Airways carried more passengers in and out of the US than any other foreign carrier.
