Demand for air travel rose 6% last year, according to the latest figures from IATA.
Full-year figures for 2016 showed demand, measured by revenue passenger kilometers, rose 6.3% compared to 2015, or 6% if adjusted for the leap year.
IATA said the strong performance was well ahead of the 10-year average annual growth rate of 5.5%.
Capacity rose 6.2% compared to 2015, pushing the load factor up 0.1 percentage points to a record full-year average high of 80.5%.
December was particularly strong, with an 8.8% rise in demand outstripping 6.6% capacity growth.
"Air travel was a good news story in 2016," said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA director general and CEO.
"Connectivity increased with the establishment of more than 700 new routes and a $44 fall in average return fares helped to make air travel even more accessible.
"As a result, a record 3.7 billion passengers flew safely to their destination."
He said demand for air travel is still expanding.
"The challenge for governments is to work with the industry to meet that demand with infrastructure that can accommodate the growth, regulation that facilitates growth and taxes that don’t choke growth.
"If we can achieve that, there is plenty of potential for a safe, secure and sustainable aviation industry to create more jobs and increase prosperity."
