U.S. airlines carried 73% fewer scheduled service passengers in July 2020 than in July 2019, according to preliminary data filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) by 18 airlines that carry more than 90% of its passengers. Despite the large annual drop from pre-pandemic numbers a year earlier when compared to the previous month U.S. airlines carried 30% more passengers in July 2020 than in June 2020.
The 73% decline from July 2019 was the smallest annual decrease since March.
The large airlines carried 21.4 million passengers in July 2020 (preliminary), up from 16.5 million passengers on all U.S. airlines in June 2020 and up from 3.0 million in April 2020, which was the lowest monthly total in BTS records dating back to 1974. The previous low was 14.6 million passengers in February 1975.