International air travel to and from the United States and Europe saw an increase of 87.1 % in February 2023, with Europe registering 3.224 million passengers compared to February 2022, according to recent data released by the International Trade Administration (ITA).
However, despite surpassing last year’s figures, data show that the number of passengers travelling from Europe to the US and vice versa saw a decrease of -14.1 % compared to February 2019.
According to ITA, last month, United States air traffic passenger take-offs totaled 15.735 million, with planes reaching 91.8 % of pre-pandemic levels.
ITA’s National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) data also show that during this period, a total of 3.609 million non-U.S. air passengers arrived in the United States, which is 67.1 % more than in February 2022 and 77.6 % of the volume of figures in 2019.
Meanwhile, in terms of overseas visitor arrivals with stays of 1 night or more in the US and under certain types of visas, the number reached 1.791 million in February 2023, making it the sixteenth consecutive month that overseas visitor arrivals exceeded 1.0 million.
Further ITA figures point out that overseas visitor arrivals in February this year reached 68.8 % of the pre-pandemic volume and up from 67 % in January 2022.
The same authority reveals that the number of air passenger departures of US citizens from the US to foreign countries was 4.252 million in February 2023, with an increase of 53.0 % compared to the same month in 2022 and exceeding February 2019 volume by 9.3 %.
World Region Highlights of US Arrivals and Departures
Overall, during February 2023, total inbound and outbound air passenger travel between the United States and other countries were drawn from the following destinations:
Mexico 3.037 million
Canada 2.127 million
The United Kingdom 1.004 million
Dominican Republic 747,000
Germany 492,000
In addition, South and Central America and the Caribbean registered 4.454 million air passengers travelling to and from the US, an increase of 28.3 % compared to February 2022. On the other hand, they saw a decrease of -0.4 % compared to the figures recorded before the pandemic.
At the same time, Asia reached 1.513 million passengers, which means an increase of 279.2 % more than February 2022, but still down by -45.4 % compared to February 2019.
Among the top US ports serving international destinations was New York with 2.041 million passengers, Miami with 1.789 million, Los Angeles with 1.372 million, Newark with 882,000 and San Francisco with 820,000.
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