Aviation

The 2024 Transportation Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) provides current and future projections of fuel consumption, cost, and emissions in domestic, commercial aviation for passenger and freight transport in the United States (i.e., not including future battery electric, hybrid, or fuel cell aircraft or international, private, or military aviation).

The Transportation ATB provides (1) data for conventional aviation fuel for 2024 in a summary table and (2) projections using both conventional aviation and sustainable aviation fuel characteristics in an interactive table showing the following:

Fuel consumption, which represents aviation fuel consumption for domestic aviation passenger or passenger and freight transport
Fuel cost, which represents the total costs for fuel incurred in domestic aviation passenger or passenger and freight transport
Fuel emissions, which are reported in metric tons of CO₂equivalent and represent greenhouse gas emissions from aviation fuel combustion.

Fuel Consumption, Fuel Cost, and CO2 Emissions

Key Assumptions

The data and estimates presented here are based on the following key assumptions:

Base Year: The assumed base year for aviation is 2022, the most recent data with credible aviation emissions information (U.S. EPA, Office of Transportation and Air Quality, 2024).
Base Year Fuel Costs: Base Year fuel costs are calculated using T-100 Market and Segment data, airline fuel cost and consumption monthly reports, and fuel costs and gallons consumed by air carrier and category of fuel use [Schedule P-12(a), Bureau of Transportation Statistics] (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2024a).
Passenger-Miles and Seat-Miles: The total passenger-miles and total seat-miles are from the T-100 Market and Segment data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The 2022 aviation sector activity was 839 billion total domestic available seat-miles (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2024b) and 707 billion total domestic revenue passenger-miles (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2024c). For the year from April 2023 to March 2024, the corresponding values had reached 930 billion seat-miles and 780 billion passenger-miles.
Emissions: Emissions per mile are calculated from Bureau of Transportation Statistics data. Research & Development Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies (R&D GREET) includes passenger-mile estimates that are not presented here.

To see the citations for the values in the table, point to a number in the table with your mouse or download the data file from the data page.

Definitions

For detailed definitions, see:

References

The following references are specific to this page; for all references in this ATB, see References.

U.S. EPA, Office of Transportation and Air Quality. “Fast Facts, U.S. Transportation Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 1990-2022,” May 2024.

Bureau of Transportation Statistics. “Airline Fuel Cost and Consumption (U.S. Carriers - Scheduled), January 2000 - April 2024.” Bureau of Transportation Statistics F41 Schedule P12A, June 2024a. https://www.transtats.bts.gov/fuel.asp?20=D&qv52ynB=qn6nH.

Bureau of Transportation Statistics. “Available Seat-Miles (the Number of Seats and the Distance Flown in Thousands (000)), All U.S. Carriers - All Airports.” Bureau of Transportation Statistics T-100 Segment data, June 2024b. https://www.transtats.bts.gov/Data_Elements.aspx?Data=4.

Bureau of Transportation Statistics. “Revenue Passenger-Miles (the Number of Passengers and the Distance Flown in Thousands (000)), All U.S. Carriers - All Airports.” Bureau of Transportation Statistics T-100 Segment data, June 2024c. https://www.transtats.bts.gov/Data_Elements.aspx?Data=4.