Largest airlines in the world


The largest airlines in the world can be defined in several ways., 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 and UPS Airlines by number of destinations served.

By revenue

Note that Emirates is a state-owned company and is thus not included in this list of public companies. Its 2014-2015 revenue was billion, profit billion, and assets billion, with 56,725 employees.

By passengers carried

RankAirlineCountry2019
2018
2017201620152014201320122011
1American Airlines Group215.18203.74199.6198.7146.5387.8386.82386.33586.042
2Delta Air Lines204.00192.46186.4183.7138.842129.433120.636116.726113.731
3Southwest Airlines162.68163.60157.8151.8144.575129.087115.323112.234110.587
4United Airlines162.44158.33148.1143.295.38490.43990.16192.61950.473
5Ryanair152.4139.2130.3119.8101.40186.37081.39579.64976.422
6China Southern Airlines151.63139.8126.384.9109.301100.68391.50486.27780.545
7Lufthansa Group145.2142.3130.0117.4115.2112.5110.4108.9112.0
8China Eastern Airlines121.1110.880.975.13966.17462.65379.6173.1
9IAG//118.3112.92104.83100.794.977.367.254.651.7
10Air China Group115.00109.7101.696.589.883.077.772.469.4

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)

RankGroupCountry2017
1American Airlines Group364,191
2Delta Air Lines350,299
3United Airlines Holdings347,963
4The Emirates Group292,221
5Lufthansa Group261,156
6International Airlines Group/252,819
7Air France–KLM/248,476
8China Southern Airlines230,697
9Southwest Airlines207,802
10Air China201,090

By scheduled freight ton-kilometers (millions)

RankAirlineCountry20182017
201620152014201320122011
1FedEx Express17,49916,85115,71215,79916,02016,12716,10815,939
2Emirates SkyCargo12,71312,71512,27012,15711,24010,4599,3198,132
3Qatar Airways Cargo12,69510,9999,2217,6605,9974,972
4UPS Airlines12,45911,94011,26410,80710,93610,58410,41610,566
5Cathay Pacific Cargo11,28410,7729,9479,9359,4648,2418,4339,109
6Korean Air Cargo7,8398,0157,6667,7618,0797,6668,1448,974
7Lufthansa Cargo7,3947,3177,3846,8887,0547,2187,1757,674
8Cargolux7,3227,3226,8786,3095,7535,225
9Air China Cargo7,0516,7016,0895,718
10China Southern Airlines6,597
Singapore Airlines Cargo6,5926,3456,0836,0196,2406,6947,118

By fleet size

RankAirlineCountryFleetWidebodyNarrowbodyRegional aircraft
1American Airlines95720
2Delta Air Lines880
3United Airlines777
4Southwest Airlines753753
5China Eastern Airlines6073
6China Southern Airlines60319
7SkyWest486486
8Ryanair456456
9Air China439
10FedEx Express378111-
11Lufthansa360
12Turkish Airlines332

By number of countries served

RankAirlineCountryCountries served
1Turkish Airlines121
2Air France91
3British Airways82
4Ethiopian Airlines81
5Emirates78
6Qatar Airways78
7Lufthansa75
8KLM67
9American Airlines62
9United Airlines62

By number of routes

RankAirlineCountryRoutes served
1Ryanair1,831
2American Airlines1,106
3United Airlines950
4easyJet945
5Delta Air Lines939
6Southwest Airlines754
7China Southern Airlines667
7China Eastern Airlines648
8Wizz Air615
9Air China470
10TUI Airways470

By number of destinations

RankAirlineCountryDestinations
1UPS Airlines815
2FedEx Express375
3United Airlines373
4American Airlines350
5Delta Air Lines320
6Turkish Airlines302
7Lufthansa274
8China Eastern Airlines217
9Air France204
10Air China201

By brand value

RankAirlineCountry$bn
1American Airlines9.094
2Delta Air Lines8.712
3United Airlines7.027
4Emirates5.336
5Southwest Airlines5.298
6China Southern Airlines4.063
7China Eastern Airlines3.81
8British Airways3.484
9Air China3.433
10Lufthansa2.914