Air passengers carried this year
Estimated range: 4,067,162,556 – 4,495,284,930 (±5%)
- 5.2 billion Projection · 2026 · IATA
- 164 passengers per second, modelled
- Tier B (±5%) Moderate confidence
- +0 Since you opened this page
Putting it in perspective
- Per second
- 164
- Per minute
- 9,886
- Per hour
- 593,201
- Per day
- 14,236,824
- Still to come this year
- 915,217,050
Counted in passengers.
How this number is made
- Algorithm
- Annual flow spread
Evenly distributed across 31,557,600 seconds (365.25 days) of the year.
- Confidence Tier
-
Tier B Moderate confidence
IATA global commercial scheduled traffic data covering member carriers with minor unscheduled charter gaps.
- Error Band
- ±5%
Modelled range: 4,067,162,556 to 4,495,284,930
- Annualized Validation
- ≤ 3.0% tolerance passed
Pace: 5,200,000,000 passengers/yr vs cited reference 5,200,000,000 passengers/yr (exact match)
- Basis
- Projection for 2026
- Record
- STO-01M2HY9T62
- Source
- IATA, Airline Profitability Stabilizes with 3.9% Net Margin Expected in 2026 (9 Dec 2025)
“Passenger numbers are expected to reach 5.2 billion in 2026 (up 4.4% on 2025).”
- Step 01
Take IATA’s figure for 2026: 5.2 billion (a projection).
- Step 02
Spread it evenly over a year of 31,557,600 seconds (365.25 days): about 165 passengers per second.
- Step 03
Count from 00:00 UTC on 1 January of the current year, so the number resets every New Year.
- On screen
- The result of those steps, recomputed four times a second in your browser. Nothing on this page is fetched live from the publisher.
- Why this can't be exact
- Real activity is not spread evenly: it clusters in working hours, weekdays and seasons, so the count runs ahead or behind the true figure at any given moment. The annual figure is IATA’s projection; the counter moves to the published actual once it is released. Digits beyond the first two or three are the model ticking, not extra precision.
Frequently asked questions
Which published figure is the counter based on?
The International Air Transport Association’s figure for 2026: 5.2 billion passengers (a projection).
How is the live number calculated?
Take IATA’s figure for 2026: 5.2 billion (a projection). Spread it evenly over a year of 31,557,600 seconds (365.25 days): about 165 passengers per second. Count from 00:00 UTC on 1 January of the current year, so the number resets every New Year.
How accurate is the counter?
Real activity is not spread evenly: it clusters in working hours, weekdays and seasons, so the count runs ahead or behind the true figure at any given moment. The annual figure is IATA’s projection; the counter moves to the published actual once it is released. Digits beyond the first two or three are the model ticking, not extra precision.
Where does the data come from?
The International Air Transport Association, “Airline Profitability Stabilizes with 3.9% Net Margin Expected in 2026” (9 Dec 2025). The record quotes the publisher’s own sentence, and nothing on the page is fetched live from the publisher.
Embed this counter
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<p><a href="https://statorigin.org/live/air-passengers">Data: IATA via StatOrigin</a> · CC BY 4.0</p>Cite this counter
A modelled figure: cite the published number it comes from when you can.
StatOrigin. (2026). Air passengers carried this year [Live counter, extrapolated from IATA]. Retrieved 28 Oct 2026, from https://statorigin.org/live/air-passengers