US and UK remain top traveling nationalities, says m1nd-set in new report
m1nd-set has released its full-year 2022 B1S traffic monitor report. The traffic monitor, which is produced in partnership with The International Air Transport Association and its air traffic data partner, Airline Reporting Corporation, reveals the top traveling nationalities, main transit hubs and leading airlines by passenger numbers.
Traveling nationalities
When it comes to traveling nationalities, the US and UK retain the top two rankings with 132 and 102 million international trips, respectively, while Germany completes the top three nationalities traveling in 2022 with 87 million international trips last year.
France, Spain and Italy remain in the top ten; however, the countries move up in the rankings compared to pre-pandemic traveler numbers in 2019, with 67, 56 and 47 million international trips, respectively, in 2022.
Switzerland, Canada and the Netherlands are all new entrants into the top ten nationalities and India completes the list, falling to tenth place (vs. fifth place in 2019).
South Korea, Japan and China have all exited the top ten traveling nationalities.
Spain and Switzerland are the only two countries among the top ten that have seen a full recovery for international traffic, attaining and even moderately surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
Main transit hubs
International travel hubs, which tend to benefit from a diverse cross-section of international travelers using their dwell time to shop duty free, have seen "a moderately healthy recovery for the most part."
The top international travel hubs in terms of transit passengers in 2022 have seen a recovery of approximately 62% vs. pre-pandemic traffic levels, with Panama City Tocumen International Airport being the only top ten travel hub to have reached pre-pandemic 2019 traffic levels for connecting passengers. The airport reported a 7% growth in traffic in 2022 compared to 2019.
The top three international travel hubs in terms of connecting passenger rankings remains unchanged since before the pandemic. Dubai International takes first place with 11 million connecting passengers in 2022, around half of the 2019 level. Frankfurt and Amsterdam follow in second and third place, respectively, with 10.5 million connecting passengers each, just over 60% of its 2019 levels for transit passengers.
Istanbul and Doha Airports complete the top five airports for connecting international flights with around 9 million each. Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport achieved 7 million transit passengers in 2022, over two thirds of its 2019 level, and Panama City, Singapore, Madrid and London Heathrow complete the top ten airports with 6.5, 5.5, 5 and 4 million transit passengers, respectively.
Madrid has also seen healthy recovery with transit traffic at over 70% of pre-pandemic levels.
Leading airlines
The third benchmark ranking in m1nd-set’s annual B1S traffic monitor reveals that the top 20 airlines for passenger numbers have recovered 81% of traffic during the first ten months in 2022, January to October, compared to the same period in 2019.
Ryanair continues to lead the ranking with just over 100 million passengers, above pre-pandemic levels at 104%. Easyjet follows in second place with less than half of Ryanair’s traffic at 48 million international passengers from January to October 2022. This is 78% of its pre-pandemic level from January to October 2019.
Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa and Emirates complete the top five ranking airlines for January-October 2022, with 34, 32 and 32 million passengers, respectively. Turkish Airlines also saw healthy recovery with 97% of January to October 2019 levels.
Wizz Air has seen traffic bounce back to around 102% of pre-pandemic January to October figures with 29 million passengers. American Airlines, Qatar Airways, Air France and British Airways complete the top ten, carrying 26, 24, 24 and 23 million passengers, respectively, between January and October 2022, according to m1nd-set. British Airways shows the lowest recovery rate at 63% of January to October 2019 traffic.
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