The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) published airport-level passenger throughput up to July 30, 2022. Now we have almost the full month of data in July. Let’s have a look at the US air traffic status. Please refer to this article about how we choose specific airports as representatives for US domestic, international, leisure, and business markets.
U.S. Overall Air Traffic Status
As shown in Figure 1, the overall US air traffic went down after the July 4th holiday and grew again. But the growth is very mild. As a result, the gap between this year and the benchmarking 2019 becomes slightly larger.
Figure 1: US Overall Air Traffic Trend
Domestic Air Traffic Indicator
Figure 2 is the U.S. domestic air traffic indicator. The domestic air traffic went through a dent during the July 4th holiday. It was relatively flat for the rest of July. As seen in other years, we expect the domestic traffic to decline in August and then increase in September.
Figure 2: US Domestic Air Traffic Indicator
International Air Traffic Indicator
Figure 3 is an indicator of the US international traffic. The gap between 2022 and 2019 kept unchanged. Our hope is that the international traffic will drop less significantly than that in 2019.
Figure 3: US International Air Traffic Indicator
Leisure Air Traffic Indicator
As shown in Figure 4, the leisure air market gains some momentum. We may see higher growth in August.
Figure 4: US Leisure Air Traffic Indicator
Business Air Traffic Indicator
As for the business traffic, Figure 5 shows that it follows the same pace as 2019. We still need the patience to see when it comes back to the pre-pandemic level.
Figure 5: US Business Air Traffic Indicator
To summarize, the US air traffic went up before the July 4th holiday and down after, the same as in a normal year. The overall traffic may have reached its peak in 2022.