In a statistical report released earlier this week, the Bureau of Transportation revealed that United States scheduled airlines had carried 670.4 million passengers during the 2021 calendar year.
2021's number of passengers is an 83% increase from 2020, though still a 27% decrease from the pre-pandemic year of 2019. The data given to the Department of Transportation by the airlines that carry 90% of total American passengers tell the story on a monthly level. 66.3 million passengers were flown in December of 2021, which is 118% more than the number of passengers flown in December of 2020 and 16% fewer in December of 2019.
The numbers make sense — while nearly all industries were ravaged by the advent of the COVID-19 Pandemic, few industries were hit harder than the flight and travel industry, so much so that airlines received significant bailouts. Flights and traveling were heavily limited in 2020 to curtail the spread of the virus. While restrictions and attitudes toward travel have eased in the coming year, they are still a far cry from what they were before the outbreak.
The number of monthly airline passengers is still below pre-pandemic levels, though they are on the rise.
