The number of travelers by air surpassed 100 million last year for the first time in four years to recover to over 80 percent of the pre-pandemic levels.

According to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Thursday, 100 million-508-thousand people boarded international and domestic flights in 2023, reaching 81-point-five percent of the 2019 figure before the outbreak of COVID-19.

The data for 2020 to 2022 during the pandemic did not reach even half of 123 million logged in 2019.

The number of domestic passengers marked 32-point-two million last year, 97-point-six percent of the comparable figure for 2019, while the number of international passengers came to 68-point-three million to hit 75 percent of the 2019 level.

The number of international travelers plunged to three-point-two million in 2021.

By region, international flights on Japanese routes saw the largest growth as the number of passengers jumped by over 500-thousand from 2019 to 19-point-38 million last year.