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Largest airlines in the world

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The largest airlines in the world can be defined in several ways. As of 2019, American Airlines Group was the largest by fleet size, passengers carried and revenue passenger mile. Delta Air Lines was the largest by revenue, assets value and market capitalization. Lufthansa Group was the largest by number of employees, FedEx Express by freight tonne-kilometers, Turkish Airlines by number of countries served, Ryanair by number of routes and UPS Airlines by number of destinations served.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as of 26 October 2020 the largest airline in the world is China Southern. American Airlines is now in second place, with Delta at number three.[1]

By company revenue

Delta Air Lines is the largest by revenue, assets value and market capitalization.
Lufthansa Group is the largest by number of employees.
Forbes' world's biggest public airline companies by revenue (as of January 2020)[2]
Rank Airline Country Revenue Profit Assets Market
cap. 		Employees
(US$ billions)
1 Delta Air Lines United States 44.9 4.1 61.8 38.1 89,000
2 American Airlines Group United States 44.5 1.4 60.6 15.4 128,900
3 Lufthansa Group Germany 42.3 2.6 44.4 12.1 135,534
4 United Airlines United States 41.9 2.3 50.6 23.3 92,000
5 Air France–KLM France/ Netherlands 31.3 0.5 33.2 5.3 81,527
6 IAG Spain/ UK/ Ireland 28.8 3.4 32.0 14.4 63,531
7 Southwest Airlines United States 22.0 2.5 27.3 28.5 58,800
8 China Southern Airlines China 21.7 0.5 36.0 14.8 100,831
9 All Nippon Airways Japan 18.6 0.9 23.6 12.0 33,719
10 China Eastern Airlines China 17.3 0.4 34.5 14.9 77,005

Note that Emirates is a state-owned company and is thus not included in this list of public companies. Its 2014-2015 revenue was DH 88.819 billion (US$24.2 billion), profit DH 4.555 billion (US$1.24 billion), and assets DH 111.362 billion (US$30.34 billion), with 56,725 employees.

By passengers carried

Airline groups
Millions of passengers carried
Rank Airline Country 2019
 2018
 2017[3] 2016[4] 2015[5] 2014[6] 2013[7] 2012[8] 2011[9]
1 American Airlines Group United States 215.18 203.74 199.6 198.7 146.53 87.83 86.823 86.335 86.042
2 Delta Air Lines United States 204.00 192.46 186.4 183.7 138.842 129.433 120.636 116.726 113.731
3 Southwest Airlines United States 162.68 163.60 157.8 151.8 144.575 129.087 115.323 112.234 110.587
4 United Airlines United States 162.44 158.33 148.1 143.2 95.384 90.439 90.161 92.619 50.473
5 Ryanair Ireland 152.4 139.2 130.3 119.8 101.401 86.370 81.395 79.649 76.422
6 China Southern Airlines China 151.63 139.8 126.3 84.9 109.301 100.683 91.504 86.277 80.545
7 Lufthansa Group Germany 145.2 142.3 130.0 117.4 115.2 112.5 110.4 108.9 112.0
8 China Eastern Airlines China 121.1 110.8 80.9 75.139 66.174 62.653 79.61 73.1
9 IAG Spain/ UK/ Ireland 118.3 112.92 104.83 100.7 94.9 77.3 67.2 54.6 51.7
10 Air China Group China 115.00 109.7 101.6 96.5 89.8 83.0 77.7 72.4 69.4
Airlines

The IATA reports numbers for individual air operator's certificates and groups of multiple airlines can report larger numbers.

By passengers carried (thousands).png

By scheduled passenger-kilometers flown (millions)

United and Swiss (Lufthansa Group) at Tokyo Narita Airport.
Airline holding groups
Rank Group Country 2017[3]
1 American Airlines Group United States 364,191
2 Delta Air Lines United States 350,299
3 United Airlines Holdings United States 347,963
4 The Emirates Group United Arab Emirates 292,221
5 Lufthansa Group Germany 261,156
6 International Airlines Group Spain/ United Kingdom 252,819
7 Air France–KLM France/ Netherlands 248,476
8 China Southern Airlines China 230,697
9 Southwest Airlines United States 207,802
10 Air China China 201,090
Individual airlines
Rank Airline Country 2018[10] 2016[11] 2015[12] 2014[13] 2013[14] 2012[15] 2011[16]
1 American Airlines United States 330,577 320,044 320,813 208,046 206,551 203,336 203,485
2 Delta Air Lines United States 330,034 308,088 302,512 290,862 277,560 271,567 269,724
3 United Airlines United States 329,562 299,080 294,970 287,547 286,802 288,282 160,270
4 Emirates United Arab Emirates 302,298 270,797 251,190 230,855 209,377 180,880 153,264
5 Southwest Airlines United States 214,561 200,848 189,097 162,445 145,124 137,708 134,918
6 China Southern Airlines China 200,239 205,720 189,186 166,074 147,841 135,021 121,944
7 Ryanair Ireland 170,900 142,740 125,194
8 China Eastern Airlines China 166,282 138,042
9 Air China China 161,199 -
10 Lufthansa Germany 158,986 149,702 145,904 143,403 144,236 142,512 140,972
British Airways United Kingdom 144,028 140,780 137,204 130,129 124,318 116,864

By scheduled freight ton-kilometers (millions)

FedEx Express is the largest by freight tonne-kilometers.
Rank Airline Country 2018[10] 2017
 2016[11] 2015[12] 2014[17] 2013[18] 2012[19] 2011[20]
1 FedEx Express United States 17,499 16,851 15,712 15,799 16,020 16,127 16,108 15,939
2 Emirates SkyCargo United Arab Emirates 12,713 12,715 12,270 12,157 11,240 10,459 9,319 8,132
3 Qatar Airways Cargo Qatar 12,695 10,999 9,221 7,660 5,997 4,972
4 UPS Airlines United States 12,459 11,940 11,264 10,807 10,936 10,584 10,416 10,566
5 Cathay Pacific Cargo Hong Kong 11,284 10,772 9,947 9,935 9,464 8,241 8,433 9,109
6 Korean Air Cargo South Korea 7,839 8,015 7,666 7,761 8,079 7,666 8,144 8,974
7 Lufthansa Cargo Germany 7,394 7,317 7,384 6,888 7,054 7,218 7,175 7,674
8 Cargolux Luxembourg 7,322 7,322 6,878 6,309 5,753 5,225
9 Air China Cargo China 7,051 6,701 6,089 5,718
10 China Southern Airlines China 6,597
Singapore Airlines Cargo Singapore 6,592 6,345 6,083 6,019 6,240 6,694 7,118

By fleet size

American Airlines is the largest by fleet size, passengers carried and RPK.
May 23, 2019[21]
Rank Airline Country Fleet Widebody Narrowbody Regional aircraft
1 American Airlines United States 891 118 773 20
2 United Airlines United States 819 210 609
3 Delta Air Lines United States 775 120 655
4 Southwest Airlines United States 753 753
5 China Southern Airlines China 603 97 463 19
6 China Eastern Airlines China 578 79 491 3
7 SkyWest United States 486 486
8 Ryanair Ireland 456 456
9 Air China China 439 130 306
10 FedEx Express United States 378 267 111
11 Lufthansa Germany 360 115 198 47
12 Turkish Airlines Turkey 332 107 225

By number of countries served

Turkish Airlines is the largest airline by number of countries served.
Rank Airline Country Countries served
(S1 2019)[22]
1 Turkish Airlines Turkey 121
2 Air France France 91
3 British Airways United Kingdom 82
4 Ethiopian Airlines Ethiopia 81
5 Emirates United Arab Emirates 78
6 Qatar Airways Qatar 78
7 Lufthansa Germany 75
8 KLM Netherlands 67
9 American Airlines United States 62
United Airlines United States 62

By number of routes

Rank Airline Country Routes served
(S1 2019)[22]
1 Ryanair Ireland 1,831
2 American Airlines United States 1,106
3 United Airlines United States 950
4 easyJet United Kingdom 945
5 Delta Air Lines United States 939
6 Southwest Airlines United States 754
7 China Southern Airlines China 667
7 China Eastern Airlines China 648
8 Wizz Air Hungary 615
9 Air China China 470
10 TUI Airways United Kingdom 470

By number of destinations

UPS Airlines serves the most destinations.
Largest airlines by number of destinations served[23]
Rank Airline Country Destinations
(Dec. 2017)
1 UPS Airlines United States 815
2 FedEx Express United States 375
3 United Airlines United States 373
4 American Airlines United States 350
5 Delta Air Lines United States 320
6 Turkish Airlines Turkey 302
7 Lufthansa Germany 274
8 China Eastern Airlines China 217
9 Air France France 204
10 Air China China 201

By brand value

Largest airlines by brand value (US$ billions) according to Brand Finance (2018)[24]
Rank Airline Country $bn
1 American Airlines United States 9.094
2 Delta Air Lines United States 8.712
3 United Airlines United States 7.027
4 Emirates United Arab Emirates 5.336
5 Southwest Airlines United States 5.298
6 China Southern Airlines China 4.063
7 China Eastern Airlines China 3.81
8 British Airways United Kingdom 3.484
9 Air China China 3.433
10 Lufthansa Germany 2.914

See also

References

  1. ^ Grant, John. "China Southern Airlines Becomes the World's Largest Airline Again". www.oag.com. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  2. ^ "The World's Largest Public Companies". Forbes.
  3. ^ a b "World Airline Rankings". Flight Global. 2018.
  4. ^ "World Airline Rankings". Flight Global. 2017.
  5. ^ "Global Air Traffic & Top Airlines 2016 (IATA)". IMM International. 28 June 2016.
  6. ^ "Scheduled Passengers Carried". World Air Transport Statistics 59th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on June 18, 2015.
  7. ^ "Scheduled Passengers Carried". World Air Transport Statistics 58th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on January 2, 2015.
  8. ^ "Scheduled Passengers Carried". World Air Transport Statistics 57th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on November 13, 2013.
  9. ^ "Scheduled Passengers Carried". World Air Transport Statistics 56th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on December 17, 2012.
  10. ^ a b "World Air Transport Statistics" (PDF). IATA. 2019.
  11. ^ a b "Summary of passenger and freight traffic" (PDF). World Air Transport Statistics. IATA. 2017.
  12. ^ a b "Summary of passenger and freight traffic" (PDF). World Air Transport Statistics. IATA. 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-07-05. Retrieved 2016-07-06.
  13. ^ "Scheduled Passenger - Kilometres Flown". World Air Transport Statistics 59th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on July 6, 2015.
  14. ^ "Scheduled Passenger - Kilometres Flown". World Air Transport Statistics 58th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on November 11, 2014.
  15. ^ "Scheduled Passenger - Kilometres Flown". World Air Transport Statistics 57th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013.
  16. ^ "Scheduled Passenger - Kilometres Flown". World Air Transport Statistics 56th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on December 16, 2012.
  17. ^ "Scheduled Freight Tonne - Kilometres". World Air Transport Statistics 59th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on July 4, 2015.
  18. ^ "Scheduled Freight Tonne - Kilometres". World Air Transport Statistics 58th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on November 25, 2014.
  19. ^ "Scheduled Freight Tonne - Kilometres". World Air Transport Statistics 57th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013.
  20. ^ "Scheduled Freight Tonne - Kilometres". World Air Transport Statistics 56th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on December 15, 2012.
  21. ^ "World Airline Fleets". Air Transport World. July 2019. p. 45-55.
  22. ^ a b "Ethiopian Airlines set to serve more country markets than MEB3 in S19, Ryanair still tops route table". Airline Network News and Analysis. 27 February 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  23. ^ "Top 10 World's Largest Airlines". AirportSpotting. 8 December 2017.
  24. ^ "American Airlines Tops The World's Most Valuable Airlines List in 2018". Airways International. April 26, 2018.
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