Largest airlines in the world

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 44.94.161.838.189,000
2 American Airlines Group United States 44.51.4 60.6 15.4 128,900
3 Lufthansa Group Germany 42.32.6 44.4 12.1 135,534
4 United Airlines United States 41.92.3 50.6 23.3 92,000
5 Air France–KLM France/ Netherlands 31.30.5 33.2 5.3 81,527
6 IAG Spain/ UK/ Ireland 28.83.4 32.0 14.4 63,531
7 Southwest Airlines United States 22.02.5 27.3 28.5 58,800
8 China Southern Airlines China 21.70.536.0 14.8 100,831
9 All Nippon Airways Japan 18.60.923.6 12.0 33,719
10 China Eastern Airlines China 17.3 0.434.5 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 215.18 203.74 199.6198.7146.5387.8386.82386.33586.042
2 Delta Air Lines  United States 204.00 192.46 186.4183.7138.842129.433120.636116.726113.731
3 Southwest Airlines  United States 162.68 163.60 157.8151.8144.575129.087115.323112.234110.587
4 United Airlines  United States 162.44 158.33 148.1143.295.38490.43990.16192.61950.473
5 Ryanair  Ireland 152.4 139.2 130.3119.8101.40186.37081.39579.64976.422
6 China Southern Airlines  China 151.63 139.8 126.384.9109.301100.68391.50486.27780.545
7 Lufthansa Group  Germany 145.2 142.3 130.0117.4115.2 112.5110.4108.9112.0
8 China Eastern Airlines  China 121.1 110.880.975.13966.17462.65379.6173.1
9 IAG  Spain/ UK/ Ireland 118.3 112.92 104.83100.7 94.9 77.3 67.2 54.6 51.7
10 Air China Group  China 115.00 109.7 101.696.5 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 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 States364,191
2 Delta Air Lines United States350,299
3 United Airlines Holdings United States347,963
4 The Emirates Group United Arab Emirates292,221
5 Lufthansa Group Germany261,156
6 International Airlines Group Spain/ United Kingdom252,819
7 Air France–KLM France/ Netherlands248,476
8 China Southern Airlines China230,697
9 Southwest Airlines United States207,802
10 Air China China201,090
Individual airlines
Rank Airline Country 2018[10] 2016[11] 2015[12] 2014[13] 2013[14] 2012[15] 2011[16]
1 American Airlines  United States 330,577320,044320,813208,046206,551203,336203,485
2 Delta Air Lines  United States 330,034308,088302,512290,862277,560271,567269,724
3 United Airlines  United States 329,562299,080294,970287,547286,802288,282160,270
4 Emirates  United Arab Emirates 302,298270,797251,190230,855209,377180,880153,264
5 Southwest Airlines  United States 214,561200,848189,097162,445145,124137,708134,918
6 China Southern Airlines  China 200,239205,720189,186166,074147,841135,021121,944
7 Ryanair  Ireland 170,900142,740125,194
8 China Eastern Airlines  China 166,282138,042
9 Air China  China 161,199-
10 Lufthansa  Germany 158,986149,702145,904143,403144,236142,512140,972
British Airways  United Kingdom 144,028140,780137,204130,129124,318116,864

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 17,49916,85115,71215,79916,02016,12716,10815,939
2 Emirates SkyCargo  United Arab Emirates 12,71312,71512,27012,15711,24010,4599,3198,132
3 Qatar Airways Cargo  Qatar 12,69510,9999,2217,6605,9974,972
4 UPS Airlines  United States 12,45911,94011,26410,80710,93610,58410,41610,566
5 Cathay Pacific Cargo  Hong Kong 11,28410,7729,9479,9359,4648,2418,4339,109
6 Korean Air Cargo  South Korea 7,8398,0157,6667,7618,0797,6668,1448,974
7 Lufthansa Cargo  Germany 7,3947,3177,3846,8887,0547,2187,1757,674
8 Cargolux  Luxembourg 7,3227,3226,8786,3095,7535,225
9 Air China Cargo  China 7,0516,7016,0895,718
10 China Southern Airlines  China 6,597
Singapore Airlines Cargo  Singapore 6,5926,3456,0836,0196,2406,6947,118

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
RankAirlineCountryRoutes served
(S1 2019)[22]
1 Ryanair Ireland1,831
2 American Airlines United States1,106
3 United Airlines United States950
4 easyJet United Kingdom945
5 Delta Air Lines United States939
6 Southwest Airlines United States754
7 China Southern Airlines China667
7 China Eastern Airlines China648
8 Wizz Air Hungary615
9 Air China China470
10 TUI Airways United Kingdom470

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. "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.
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  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. "World Air Transport Statistics" (PDF). IATA. 2019.
  11. "Summary of passenger and freight traffic" (PDF). World Air Transport Statistics. IATA. 2017.
  12. "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. "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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