Global air passenger traffic up 6.9% in 2018

The global air passenger traffic rose by 6.9% to reach 4.4 billion people year-on-year in 2018, the international aviation authority announced on Wednesday.

This figure represented 284 million air trips in 2018, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said.

The largest number of air passengers were carried in the Asia-Pacific region with 1.6 billion people.

Europe (1.1 billion passengers) and the North America (989.4 million) followed.

"Record efficiency was achieved with 81.9% of available seats being filled," the association said.

During the year, the top nationalities traveling in international flights were the U.K., the U.S., China, Germany and France.

Low-cost carrier segment accounted for 21% of global air passenger capacity in 2018.

"22,000 city pairs are now connected by direct flights, up 1,300 over 2017 and double the 10,250 city pairs connected in 1998," IATA noted.