'''Monthly U.S. Domestic Airline Flights'''
  2002/2003
Flights
 2003/2004
Flights
[http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/2004/bts015_04/html/bts015_04.html March] 806,156 814,340
[http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/2004/bts011_04/html/bts011_04.html February] 678,865 746,025
[http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/2004/bts008_04/html/bts008_04.html January] 792,585 772,226
[http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/2004/bts005_04/html/bts005_04.html December] 789,099 779,837
[http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/2004/bts003_04/html/bts003_04.html November] 823,070 778,972
[http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/2004/bts002_04/html/bts002_04.html October] 886,126 852,544

The scale of air traffic and the AviationSmog it creates by burning many billions of gallons of fuel each year is truly immense. In 2000 there were 8,951,773 commercial aircraft departures in the United States alone. Using simple division that's 24,525 per day, 1,021 per hour, 17 per minute. (Large certificated air carriers operate aircraft with more than 60 seats or a maximum payload capacity of more than 18,000 pounds. Data for commuter, intrastate, and foreign-flag air carriers are not included in this publication.)

[[[ ~~These statistics for the United States are from The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics [http://www.bts.gov/]~~ ]]] ,, ,,
'''Annual U.S. Domestic Airline Departures and Passengers'''
Departures Passengers
[http://www.bts.gov/publications/airport_activity_statistics_of_certificated_air_carriers/2000/tables/table01.html 2000] 8,951,773 638,902,993
[http://www.bts.gov/publications/airport_activity_statistics_of_certificated_air_carriers/1999/tables/table01.html 1999] 8,605,486 610,628,716
,, ,, [[[ "++U.S. airlines set an annual record by carrying 769.4 million scheduled domestic and international passengers on their systems in 2007, nearly 25 million more passengers or 3.3 percent more than they did in 2006 when the previous high was reached.++"--[http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/2008/bts013_08/html/bts013_08.html BTS 13-08] ]]] ,, ,,
'''Jet Fuel Consumption by Certificated Air Carriers'''
Gallons, Domestic operations only, [http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_04_08.html BTS]
19601,954,000,000
19653,889,000,000
19707,857,000,000
19757,558,000,000
19808,519,000,000
198510,115,000,000
199012,429,000,000
199111,506,000,000
199211,763,000,000
199311,959,000,000
199412,476,000,000
199512,812,000,000
199613,187,000,000
199713,660,000,000
199813,877,000,000
199914,402,000,000
200014,845,000,000
200114,017,000,000
200212,848,000,000
200312,959,000,000
200413,623,000,000
200513,789,000,000
200613,458,000,000
,, ,, ,,
'''Top 10 Airlines, ranked by March 2004 Domestic Enplanements'''
Rank Airline Passengers
1 Southwest Airlines 7,089,890
2 Delta Air Lines 6,947,233
3 American Airlines 6,425,910
4 United Airlines 5,029,770
5 Northwest Airlines 4,021,053
6 US Airways 3,335,691
7 Continental Airlines 2,762,806
8 America West Airlines 1,710,680
9 American Eagle Airlines 1,166,685
10 Alaska Airlines 1,159,678
U.S. airlines carried 54.2 million domestic passengers on 814,340 flights in March 2004, 7.4 percent more than in March 2003.—[http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/2004/bts015_04/html/bts015_04.html BTS 15-04]