The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Jan. 3 that 2024 was the United States’ second-busiest year ever for flights. The record was set before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement that was also published through Medium, the FAA said its preliminary data showed that the United States logged roughly 16.86 million flights in the nation’s airspace in 2024, an increase of about 500,000 from the previous year’s 16.36 million.
An FAA representative told The Epoch Times that 2024 had the second-highest number of flights in 12 months, after 2019’s roughly 17.01 million flights that were logged domestically by Air Traffic Control.
Thursdays continued to be the most popular air travel day of the week last year, with more than 2.58 million Thursday flights logged in 2024. July 25 was the busiest day of 2024, with 54,338 flights.
Fridays were also busy, with 2.54 million flights logged on Fridays in 2024.
For the fifth year in a row, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport topped the list of busiest airports in the nation, handling 802,423 operations—an increase of about 21,000 from the year prior—in 2024. Chicago O’Hare International was in second place with 776,854 operations, and Dallas Fort Worth International came in third with 750,167.
Though the number of flights increased from 2023, the FAA said the cancellation rate remained at 1.2 percent, the lowest since 2016.
In 2023 and 2024, the leading cause of flight delays was the weather, accounting for 61.4 percent of the total delay minutes. Heavy traffic and runway construction were the next leading causes of flight delays in the past two years.
FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker, who previously announced he would retire on Jan. 20 so President-elect Donald Trump could choose his successor, reflected on the January 2024 Alaska Airlines incident, which caused renewed scrutiny on Boeing’s safety practices and resulted in further regulatory action from the FAA.
“One year ago, a little over two months into my tenure as FAA Administrator, a mid-cabin door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX after it departed from Portland, Oregon,” Whitaker wrote in a Jan. 3 FAA blog entry posted to Medium.
“I spoke with our safety experts and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to get all the facts and inputs before making the decision to issue an emergency airworthiness directive grounding all MAX aircraft built with this type of plug door. That soon led to a series of unprecedented steps that dramatically transformed how we oversee Boeing.”
He said the aerospace manufacturer is working to execute its comprehensive safety plan, which will improve quality while also engaging its employees.
“We’re actively monitoring the results and keeping a close eye on work at key Boeing facilities,” Whitaker said.
“FAA safety experts continually review the effectiveness of the changes; senior FAA leaders meet with Boeing weekly to review their performance metrics, progress, and any challenges they’re facing; we have conducted an unprecedented number of unannounced audits; and we conduct monthly status reviews with Boeing executives to monitor progress. Our enhanced oversight is here to stay.”
