FOI reference: FOI-2025-2911
You asked
I was wondering if data on the ‘total number of global commercial airline flights per year’ - or similar - is available. Preferably dating back to the 70s/80s.
We said
Thank you for your recent FOI request.
We unfortunately do not collect data on the total number of global commercial airline flights per year. Therefore, we do not hold the information requested.
The only flight data we collect as part of our Real Time Indications publication is daily UK flights numbers, with records starting in 2019 and available as part of our Daily UK flights published dataset.
This data shows daily data for UK flight numbers and a rolling seven-day average, including flights to, from, and within the UK. These are official statistics in development and sourced from EUROCONTROL. Please see the EUROCONTROL data for more detailed breakdowns by aircraft operators should that be of any help. Please note, this data covers Europe and we are unsure whether it extends to global flights.