Air Traffic By The Numbers

Every day, FAA's Air Traffic Organization (ATO) provides service to more than 45,000 flights and 2.9 million airline passengers across more than 29 million square miles of airspace. With an airspace system as vast and complex as ours, it is helpful to have an easy-to-reference source for relevant facts and information. View the infographic below for a glimpse into ATO, or for more information, see Air Traffic by the Numbers (PDF).* based on FY19 figures

16,405,000 flights handled by
the FAA yearly

45,000 average daily flights
handled by the FAA

10,000,000+ scheduled passenger
flights yearly

5,400 aircraft in the sky at
peak operational times

24,100,000 square miles of
oceanic airspace

5,300,000 square miles of united
states domestic airspace

520 airport traffic
control towers

19,633 u.s. airports
5,082 public airports
14,551 private airports

21 air route traffic
control centers

14,000+ air traffic
controllers

2,900,000 passengers fly every
day in and out of
u.s. airports

167,000+ fixed-wing general
aviation aircraft

10,000 rotorcraft

34,200 experimental
lightcraft

25,506,000 general aviation
flight hours per year

44,500,000,000 pounds of freight
per year

10,857,000 u.s. jobs generated
from aviation

147 terminal radar
approach control
facilities

5.2% aviation contributed
to the u.s. gross
domestic product

$488 Billion annual earnings
from aviation