MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay ranks third in Latin America for international air passengers per capita

Uruguay ranked third in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2025 for international air passengers per inhabitant, according to Airports Council International figures presented in Lima this week, despite its small share of the region's total traffic.

The country recorded 0.67 international passengers per inhabitant, behind only the Dominican Republic, at 1.71, and Costa Rica, at 1.62. As an outside reference, the United States recorded 0.77. Argentina, by contrast, stood at 0.34.

Absolute volume tells a different story. Uruguay's airports handled some 2.3 million passengers in 2025, compared with 235 million in Brazil, 191 million in Mexico, 100 million in Colombia and 50 million in Argentina. In total passengers per inhabitant, Uruguay recorded 0.68, below most of the region's large markets and above Paraguay, Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras, among others.

The director general of the organisation's Latin American branch, ACI-LAC, Rafael Echevarne, attributed Uruguay's position to the development of Carrasco International Airport and its integration with logistics activity. “Uruguay is one of the star countries, not only in the region but almost worldwide,” he told the newspaper El País. He highlighted the Latin America Cargo City logistics centre at Carrasco, which he said has become a regional hub for the pharmaceutical industry serving Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, as well as the integration between the airport and the port of Montevideo. The airport and its logistics centre are operated by the Corporación América group.

The figures come against a regional market growing at a more moderate pace. In the first half of 2026, passenger traffic in Latin America and the Caribbean rose 1.9% and cargo 3.6%. ACI-LAC projects long-term growth of 3.1% a year, taking the region from some 809 million passengers this year to around 1.5 billion in 2045, with required investment estimated at US$178 billion over thirty years.

The post-pandemic recovery has been uneven: according to the organisation, 133 airports in the region remain below their 2019 passenger traffic and 161 have not recovered their cargo levels.