Which Country Transports the Most Freight by Air?

Air Transport Freight (mil tonne-km) (mil tonne-km), 2020 or latest
Transport | April 1, 2022
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Excel Sheet

Based on a comparison of 137 countries in 2020, USA ranked the highest in air transport freight measured by mil tonne-km with 40,793 mil tonne-km followed by China and Qatar. On the other end of the scale was Malawi with < 0.001 mil tonne-km, Guatemala with < 0.001 mil tonne-km and Kyrgyzstan with 0.006 mil tonne-km.

Total air transport freight measured by mil tonne-km reached 180,531 mil tonne-km in 2020 in the World according to the National Statistical Office. This is 22.5 % less than in the previous year and -0.828 % less than 10 years ago.

Historically, total air transport freight measured by mil tonne-km reached an all time high of 221,496 mil tonne-km in 2019 and an all time low of 15,569 mil tonne-km in 1973. The average annual growth amounted to 5.35 % since 1970.

The top ranked country, USA, accounted for 22.6 % of air transport freight measured by mil tonne-km in the world. The top 3 countries hold a 40.8 % share while the ten largest countries some 74.1 % in 2020.

Data for more countries are available at Air Transport Freight (mil tonne-km) indicator page.

Air Transport Freight (mil tonne-km) Unit 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
China mil tonne-km 17,823 19,806 21,305 23,324 25,256
Ethiopia mil tonne-km 950 1,229 1,500 2,076 2,089
Germany mil tonne-km 7,184 6,986 6,943 7,902 7,970
Hong Kong mil tonne-km 10,826 11,294 11,409 12,415 12,677
Japan mil tonne-km 8,662 8,662 9,361 10,685 9,421
Luxembourg mil tonne-km 5,753 6,309 6,878 7,321 7,323
Netherlands mil tonne-km 5,726 5,293 4,746 5,855 5,887
Qatar mil tonne-km 5,993 7,563 9,206 10,970 12,667
Russia mil tonne-km 4,414 4,761 5,863 6,845 6,811
Singapore mil tonne-km 6,052 6,332 6,696 5,063 6,947
South Korea mil tonne-km 11,125 11,294 10,806 11,512 11,519
Turkey mil tonne-km 2,630 2,882 3,494 4,800 5,949
USA mil tonne-km 38,225 37,866 38,658 41,592 42,985
United Arab Emirates mil tonne-km 15,527 15,963 16,139 16,616 15,963
United Kingdom mil tonne-km 5,975 5,423 5,513 5,916 6,198