Rob Hadick, a general partner at Dragonfly, stated that nearly every time he tells someone that 55% of American adults fly zero times a year, they need to double-check the data before accepting it. This post references a demo from OpenAI's developer account, with the tagline "Now... wireless networks are better."

He did not include a table in the post. The closest industry survey to the 55% figure is an annual survey commissioned by Airlines for America and conducted by Ipsos. A round of screening from January 5 to 19, 2026, surveyed 3,847 American adults aged 18 and older, with 3,380 completing the questionnaire. According to the historical data released by the association, the proportion of people who flew in the past year in 2025 was 45%, corresponding to about 55% who did not fly in the past year.

The same table breaks down "ever flown" and "flown in the past year." In 2025, the proportion of those who have ever flown was 87%, and 65% had flown in the past five years. The proportion for the past year was 54% in 2015, 45% in 2019, 22% in 2020, 37% in 2021, 38% in 2022, 43% in 2023, 46% in 2024, and 45% in 2025. In 1977, this figure was 25%.

Gallup's earlier adult survey provided similar figures. In December 2015, the proportion of adults with zero trips in the past 12 months was 55%, with an average of 2.1 trips per adult. In a measurement from December 1 to 16, 2021, the proportion of zero trips rose to 62%, with only 38% having flown at least once, and the average number of trips dropped to 1.4. The proportion of employed adults who flew dropped from 54% in 2015 to 41% in 2021.

Hadick's position is as a general partner at Dragonfly, with a public resume indicating prior roles at GoldenTree and Goldman, and an investment list including Polymarket, Rain, Mesh, and others. The post has approximately 4,646 likes, 117 replies, and 194,000 views. He did not specify which year or survey the 55% figure comes from, nor did he distinguish between "zero flights in a year" and "never flown in a lifetime."

This is a public verification of travel demand distribution, not an airline financial report or fare adjustment. The actual contributors to ticket sales are the 45% who flew in the past year, with frequent travelers contributing higher frequencies; 55% of adults did not enter the cabin that year. Capital is concentrated in frequent travelers, ticket agents, and automated travel solutions, rather than the entire adult population. Beneficiaries are airlines and travel software designed for high-frequency travelers and loyalty programs; those under pressure are consumer-grade demonstrations treating airport wireless networks and automated ticketing as everyday scenarios.

The association's survey used a probability sample from Ipsos KnowledgePanel, asking whether respondents had flown in the past year, not the average number of flights. Therefore, the median can be zero, while total passenger volume is still supported by a small number of frequent travelers.

Source: Public Information