Dear Colleagues,
As the summer season peaks across the Western Hemisphere, infrastructure challenges continue to impact aviation across the Americas. IATA is stepping up its engagement to address these issues and advocate for smarter, more connected investments.
In Lima, the long-delayed new terminal is now operational, but connectivity remains a problem—road access is incomplete, and the train still links only to the old terminal. In Santiago, passengers face long queues due to malfunctioning technology. Bogotá continues to struggle with runway and taxiway inefficiencies, while São Paulo’s GRU expansion cannot come soon enough. Ironically, GRU’s rail link remains underused due to safety and quality concerns. Most recently, torrential rains in Mexico City caused major disruptions at MEX, highlighting long-standing drainage issues and ineffective contingency planning—especially concerning ahead of next year’s World Cup. And in North America, IATA has engaged the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to jointly address the need for improved runway infrastructure at JFK Airport.
While the region has made progress in modernizing airport terminals and broader infrastructure, it’s important to remind airport operators and government authorities that the journey doesn’t end at the gate—it ends at the final destination. Infrastructure that connects airports to cities and people to opportunity must now take priority.
This is a message we will continue to emphasize across the region, as investment must extend beyond the terminal. Achieving this requires strong public-private collaboration across the entire travel and tourism value chain.
IATA’s latest June 2025 Air Passenger Market Analysis, further highlights the urgency for these type of joint infrastructure investments as Latin America and the Caribbean posted the highest international traffic growth globally with an impressive 9.3% year-over-year increase in international RPKs. While global international traffic growth slowed to 3.2% YoY, Latin America and the Caribbean demonstrated its resilience and potential as a key aviation and tourism hub. Meanwhile, North American carriers saw a 0.3% year-on-year fall in demand.
IATA has also released the latest edition of the World Air Transport Statistics (WATS), offering a comprehensive snapshot of global airline performance in 2024. Among the standout findings: international premium class travel surged by 11.8%, outpacing economy class growth and signaling a strong rebound in high-yield travel. The report also ranks the world’s busiest airport pairs, with Jeju-Seoul (CJU-GMP) topping the list at 13.2 million passengers. In Latin America and the Caribbean, Bogota-Medellin (BOG-MDE) was the region’s busiest route, with 3.8 million travelers, while New York John F. Kennedy International Airport-Los Angeles (JFK-LAX) was the busiest route in North America with 2.2 million passengers. I hope you find this data useful and please feel free to reach out with any questions or suggestions.
Lastly, as usual, please find below the latest IATA activities across the Americas for your reference. Thank you for your on-going support.
Peter Cerdá
IATA’s Regional Vice President, The Americas
Americas Focus: Archive
2025: 01-2025 (pdf) 02-2025 (pdf) 03-2025 (pdf) 04-2025 (pdf) 05-2025 (pdf) 06-2025 (pdf) 07-2025 (pdf) 07-2025 Spanish (pdf)
2024: 01-2024 (pdf) 02-2024 (pdf) 03-2024 (pdf) 04-2024 (pdf) 05-2024 (pdf) 06-2024 (pdf) 07-2024 (pdf) 08-2024 (pdf) 09-2024 (pdf)
2023: 01-2023 (pdf) 02-2023 (pdf) 03-2023 (pdf) 04-2023 (pdf) 05-2023 (pdf) 06-2023 (pdf) 07-2023 (pdf) 08-2023 (pdf)
2022: 01-2022 (pdf) 02-2022 (pdf) 03-22 (pdf) 04-22 (pdf) 05-22 (pdf) 06-22 (pdf)
2021: 01-2021 (pdf) 02-2021 (pdf) 03-2021 (pdf) 04-2021 (pdf) 05-2021 (pdf) 06-2021 (pdf) 07-2021 (pdf)
2020: 01-2020 (pdf) 02-2020 (pdf) 03-2020 (pdf)
2019: Jan 2019 (pdf) Feb 2019 (pdf) May 2019 (pdf) #04 Version (pdf) #05 Version (pdf) #06 Version (pdf)
2018: Jan 2018 (pdf) Feb 2018 (pdf) Mar 2018 (pdf) Apr 2018 (pdf) May 2018 (pdf) Jun 2018 (pdf)
Jul 2018 (pdf) Aug-Sep 2018 (pdf) Oct-Nov 2018 (pdf) Summary 2018 (pdf)
2017: Q4 2017 (pdf) Q3 2017 (pdf) Q2 2017 (pdf) Q1 2017 (pdf)