NTTO: Easter Timing Impacts March and April Arrival Data, Q1 Spend Up Compared to 2024

April 2025 International Air Passenger Travel to and from the United States

The National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) recently released April data that international arrivals showed marked improvement over the first quarter of 2025, particularly given the sharp decline in March. 

U.S.-international air passenger enplanements totaled 22 million in April, up 2.8 percent compared to April 2024, with enplanements reaching 105 percent of pre-pandemic April 2019 volume. NTTO noted, however, that the March decline and the April increase were both impacted by Easter falling on April 20 this year, compared to being March 31 in 2024.

Non-U.S. citizen air arrivals from foreign countries totaled 5 million in April, up 2.9 percent compared to April 2024. This represented 88 percent of pre-pandemic April 2019 volume.

On a related note, overseas visitor arrivals totaled 3 million in April, which reached 86 percent of pre-pandemic April 2019 volume, up from 83 percent in March. April overseas visitor arrivals increased 8 percent compared to April 2024. 

U.S. citizen air passenger departures to foreign countries totaled 6 million in April, up 6.2 percent from April 2024. This exceeded April 2019 volume by 25 percent.

U.S. Travel and Tourism Exports and Imports in March

NTTO also released March data the spend related to international inbound travelers and American outbound travel. 

• International visitors spent about $20 billion on travel to, and tourism-related activities within the U.S. during March, a decrease of 4 percent compared to March 2024; last year, Easter was in March, so this year-over-year decline was expected.
• Americans spent $22 billion traveling abroad in March, more than international visitors spent in the U.S., yielding a nearly $2 billion balance of trade deficit for travel and tourism-related goods and services.
• International visitors have spent more than $63 billion on U.S. travel and tourism-related goods and services year to date (January through March), an increase of 2 percent when compared to the same period last year; international visitors have injected, on average, $707 million a day into the U.S. economy this year.
• U.S. travel and tourism exports accounted for 21 percent of U.S. services exports during March and 7 percent of all U.S. exports, goods and services alike.