by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:35 AM ET, Mon April 14, 2025
International travel to and from the United States was down half a percentage point from March 2024, mainly due to Easter being celebrated in April instead of March this year.
Data released by the International Trade Administration show that U.S.-international air traffic passenger enplanements was 22.546 million this March. While it was half a point lower than last year, it’s still 5.7 percent higher than the pre-pandemic total.
Non-U.S. citizen air passenger arrivals to the country were down 9.7 percent from last year, below pre-pandemic totals. The country welcomed 4.5 million international visitors in March. Around 2.4 million of these visitors came from overseas.
Americans are still heading abroad more than international travelers are visiting the country. Over 6.5 million citizens flew to another country in March, up 1.6 percent from March 2024. This is a 21.9 percent increase from the pre-pandemic volume.
Where were people traveling to and from this March? The majority of passenger travel was heading to and from Mexico, with nearly 4 million travelers; Canada, with almost 3 million; the United Kingdom, with nearly 1.5 million; and the Dominican Republic and Japan, both almost hitting one million each.
The trend of Americans heading abroad more than international travelers arriving in the U.S. has been a trend since the pandemic ended. Other NTTO data shows that Americans are spending more abroad than international travelers are spending in the U.S., with a deficit of $571 million.
A global report from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) from February first reported a notable decrease in travel to and from North America. While air passenger demand increased year-over-year in February for every region of the world, it actually decreased by 3.2 percent, mainly due to economic uncertainty connected with Trump’s trade war.
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