The U.S. commercial airline industry is one of the most diverse, dynamic and perplexing in the world. It is fast-evolving, labor intensive, capital intensive, hyper-competitive and highly susceptible to the ebb and flow of business cycles as well as being among the most regulated of deregulated businesses.

The Airline Data Project (ADP) was established by the MIT Global Airline Industry Program to better understand the opportunities, risks and challenges facing this vital industry. The ADP presents the most important airline industry data in one location in an easy-to-understand, user-friendly format.

The data on this website is sourced from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Form 41 data product. It has been selected and analyzed to present a view of the industry and its important trends, as well as to identify fundamental drivers of success - and in some cases, the early signs of potential failure.

The ADP is designed to support the goals of the MIT Airline Industry Consortium. It is a unique repository of data and analysis that will allow individuals – from academia to the financial community to the news media – to monitor the evolution of the U.S. commercial airline industry.

The ADP is updated in June of each year pending the release of Form 41 data files by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The last update of the ADP was in December 2021 for calendar year 2020 data. If you have questions about what items are included in various Form 41 data categories, you can refer to the U.S. DOT's Form 41 Financial Reporting Categories Item List Guide.

You are invited to review the data on this site and share your feedback on the wealth of information that is available about this highly visible industry.