May 2026 U.S. Airline Traffic Data Down 0.7% from the Same Month Last Year :: Hospitality Trends

U.S. airlines carried 84.7 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in May 2026, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). When adjusted for seasonality, May enplanements are up 0.1% from April and down 3.2% from the all-time high reached in June 2024.

BTS reported 73.8 million domestic passengers and 10.9 million international passengers on U.S. airlines flights in May, not adjusting for seasonality.

U.S. airline traffic reports are filed monthly with BTS. See the tables that accompany this release on the BTS website for summary data since 2016 (Tables 1-24) and complete data since 2000.

Trends (not seasonally adjusted) in U.S. airlines passenger enplanements

May unadjusted 

•   Systemwide enplanements (84.7M) were down 2.7% from the all-time May high (87.1) reached in 2024.
•   Domestic enplanements (73.8M) were down 2.7% from the all-time May high (75.8) reached in 2024.
•   International enplanements (10.9M) were down 2.9% from the all-time May high (11.3) reached in 2024.

Table A. Unadjusted Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods 

Seasonally adjusted trends in U.S. airlines passenger enplanements

May seasonally adjusted

•   Systemwide enplanements (80.5M) were down 3.2% from the all-time high of 83.2 million reached in June 2024.
•   Domestic enplanements (69.9M) were down 3.3% from the all-time high of 72.3 million reached in June 2024. 
•   International enplanements (10.6M) were down 4.7% from the all-time high of 11.1 million reached in December 2024.

Table B. Seasonally Adjusted Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods