Airlines around the world saw another quarter of steady growth in Q3 2025, according to IATA’s latest Quarterly Air Transport Chartbook. Passenger demand continued to expand, though at a slightly slower pace than earlier in the year, while air cargo reached its highest utilization levels since 2022.
Fuel markets remained tight. This contributed to pushing jet prices higher and widening the gap between jet fuel and crude. Together, the trends show an industry that is still moving forward, but with notable differences across global regions.
Passenger Traffic
Industry-wide passenger traffic rose 4.1% year-over-year in Q3, totaling 2.6 trillion revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs). Capacity increased at a similar pace, edging the global passenger load factor—the percentage of seats filled by paying passengers—down to 85%.
Asia Pacific carriers were the largest contributors to growth, accounting for nearly half of the worldwide increase as international travel within the region continued to strengthen. European airlines saw a 3.3% rise in passenger demand, while carriers in Latin America and the Caribbean posted a 6.7% gain, supported in part by double-digit growth in Brazil’s domestic markets.
North American airlines had the softest result among major regions. Passenger demand grew 0.6% year-over-year as capacity outpaced traffic, keeping the regional load factor at 84.6%. By contrast, long-haul routes from South America to Europe showed strong momentum, with traffic up 9.7% year-over-year.
IATA noted that several European destinations—including Portugal, Italy and Switzerland—continued to see rising numbers of travelers arriving from Latin America in Q3.
Cargo Traffic
Industry cargo demand expanded 4.2% year-over-year, a sharp improvement from the previous quarter. In seasonally adjusted terms, cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs) reached their highest level since the data series began.
IATA attributed the gains to continued front-loading by shippers and recent changes in trade routes driven by tariff uncertainty. Cargo space utilization, or load factors, rose to 46.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis, the best performance since early 2022. Dedicated freighters filled an average of 63.5% of their international capacity in Q3, while belly cargo load factors held steady at 39.2%.
Fuel Markets
Fuel trends naturally played a large role in shaping airline operations. Crude oil averaged $69 per barrel in Q3, up 2% from the previous quarter following new sanctions from the U.S., EU and UK on Russian exports.
Jet fuel prices increased 6% to an average of $90 per barrel, widening the gap between crude oil and jet fuel prices as refineries prioritized diesel production. IATA reported that refinery closures in the U.S. and Europe, along with slower ramp-up at new facilities in Africa and the Americas, added to the tight supply environment.
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