80% of Pakistanis Have Never Traveled by Air, Gallup & Gilani Survey Finds

Only 15% of Pakistanis report having traveled by airplane, with air travel experience highest among people aged 50 and above

Hamid Khan Wazir

ISLAMABAD: Gallup & Gilani Pakistan survey has found that 80% of adult Pakistanis have never traveled by airplane, while only 15% say they have traveled by air at least once, highlighting the limited reach of air travel among the country's population.

The survey showed a significant variation across age groups, with people aged 50 and above recording the highest level of air travel experience at 42%. By comparison, only 11% of respondents aged 30 to 50 and 8% of those under 30 reported having traveled by airplane.

According to the survey findings, respondents were asked: “Please tell me whether you have ever traveled by airplane?” Of those surveyed, 15% said they had traveled by air, while 80% said they had never done so. Another 5% either did not know or did not provide a response.

The findings indicate that air travel remains relatively uncommon in Pakistan, with the survey identifying a particularly wide gap between older and younger age groups in terms of experience with air travel.

The study was conducted by Gallup & Gilani Pakistan, the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International. The survey covered 811 married men and women from both urban and rural areas across all four provinces of Pakistan.

The survey was conducted through telephone interviews using Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) between March 18 and March 31, 2026. The estimated margin of error was approximately ±2–3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

The survey findings were released by the Gilani Research Foundation, which described Gallup Pakistan and the foundation as nonpartisan organizations focused on public opinion research and social science analysis.