World's largest airlines

There are several ways of defining the world's largest airline, and as such, several different airlines can claim the title at the same time. For example, American Airlines has carried more scheduled passengers annually than any other airline since its merger with US Airways in 2013. United Airlines, however, flies more passenger-kilometers annually than American and serves more destinations than Delta Air Lines. FedEx Express is the largest cargo airline, both in freight tonne-kilometers flown (a measure of not just how many packages are delivered, but how much weight is delivered and over what distance), and in fleet size.

By revenue

From Forbes 2000 world's biggest public companies (except Emirates Airlines, which isn't a public company, taken from the 2013//14 annual report and converted at the 31 March 2014 exchange rate) :^[1]

Rank	Airline	country	revenue ($B)	profit ($B)	assets ($B)	market cap. ($B)
1	American Airlines Group1		42.7	1.9	42.3	35.8
2	Lufthansa Group		39.9	0.4	40.1	12.3
3	United Airlines		38.3	0.6	36.8	23.6
4	Delta Air Lines		37.7	2.7	59.4	39.9
5	Air France-KLM		34	-2.4	35	4.7
6	International Airlines Group		24.7	1.6	28.6	14.3
7	Emirates Airlines		22.0	0.9	27.6	State owned
8	Southwest Airlines		17.7	0.8	19.3	16.8
9	All Nippon Airways		16	0.2	20.5	7.6
10	China Southern Airlines		15.9	0.3	27.3	3.7

Notes

• ^1 Figures are for the merged American Airlines/US Airways.

By passengers carried (millions)

Rank	Airline	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	Metric	Ref.
1	American Airlines Group1		193.7	107.8	107.2	105.2	104.5	Enplanements	[2]
2	Delta Air Lines2		164.6	164.6	163.8	162.6	161.1	Passengers boarded	[3]
3	United Airlines3		139.2	140.4	141.8	145.6	81.4	Onboard passengers	[4]
4	Southwest Airlines4		133.1	133.9	135.2	106.2	101.3	Enplaned passengers	[5]
5	Ryanair	86.4	81.4	79.3	75.8	72.1	66.5	Passengers	[6]
6	China Eastern Airlines5		79.1	73.1	68.7	64.9	44.0	Number of passengers carried	[7]
7	Lufthansa6	77.5	76.3	74.7	65.5	58.9	55.6	Passengers	[8]
8	LATAM Airlines7		66.7	65.0	19.7	17.3	15.4	Transported Passengers	[9]
9	China Southern Airlines		64.5	61.8	58.7	57.7	49.4		[10]
10	easyJet8	65.3	61.3	59.2	55.5	49.7	46.1	Earned seats flown	[11]

Notes

• Based on individual companies' published figures. Each company has its own metric for "passengers carried".
• ^1 Includes figures for American Eagle. Figures on and after 2013 are for the merged American/US Airways.
• ^2 Includes figures for Delta Connection.
• ^3 Includes figures for United Express. Figures on and after 2010 are for the merged United/Continental.
• ^4 Figures on and after 2011 include AirTran Airways.
• ^5 Includes figures for Shanghai Airlines and China United Airlines.
• ^6 Includes figures for Lufthansa Regional and Germanwings.
• ^7 Includes figures for LAN Airlines and TAM Airlines.
• ^8 Includes figures for EasyJet Switzerland.

By passenger-kilometres flown (millions)

Rank	Airline	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	Ref.
1	American Airlines Group1	346,878	330,323	219,492	216,132	209,321	[12]
2	United Airlines2	330,184	330,696	334,989	338,833	327,479	[13]
3	Delta Air Lines3	313,803	310,562	310,228	310,875	304,074	[14]
4	Emirates	215,353	188,606	160,549	146,205	126,331	[15]
5	Southwest Airlines4	167,932	165,561	157,044	125,604	119,826	[16]
6	Lufthansa5	153,334	149,780	141,055	129,668	122,991	[17]
7	China Southern Airlines6	148,417	135,535	122,344	111,328	93,002	[18]
8	Air China7	141,967	129,773	123,489	105,695	75,474	[19]
9	Air France8	139,824	137,606	135,129	127,763	128,326	[20][21]
10	British Airways9	131,333	126,436	117,348	106,082	114,346	[22]

Notes

• Based on individual companies' published figures.
• ^1 Includes figures for American Eagle. Figures on and after 2013 are for the merged American/US Airways.
• ^2 Includes figures for United Express.
• ^3 Includes figures for Delta Connection.
• ^4 Figures on and after 2011 include AirTran Airways.
• ^5 Includes figures for Lufthansa Regional and Germanwings.
• ^6 Includes figures for Xiamen Airlines, Shantou Airlines, Zhuhai Airlines, Guizhou Airlines and Chongqing Airlines.
• ^7 Includes figures for Shenzhen Airlines (including Kunming Airlines), Air Macau and Dalian Airlines.
• ^8 Includes figures for HOP! and Transavia France.
• ^9 Includes figures for BA CityFlyer and OpenSkies.

By freight tonne-kilometres flown (millions)

Rank	Airline	2013
1	FedEx Express	16,127
2	UPS Airlines	10,584
3	Emirates SkyCargo	10,459
4	Cathay Pacific Cargo	8,241
5	Korean Air Cargo	7,666
6	Lufthansa Cargo	7,218
7	Singapore Airlines Cargo	6,240
8	Cargolux	5,225
9	Qatar Airways Cargo	4,972
10	China Airlines Cargo	4,813

Notes

• Based on figures published by the International Air Transport Association.^[23]

By fleet size

Passenger airlines

Rank	Airline	Fleet size	Ref.
1	American Airlines Group1	962	[24]
2	Delta Air Lines2	773	[25]
3	United Airlines3	702	[26]
4	Southwest Airlines	646	[27]
5	China Southern Airlines4	578	[28]
6	Air China5	552	[29]
7	China Eastern Airlines6	492	[30]
8	Lufthansa7	433	[31]
9	Air Canada8	363	[32]
10	Ryanair	303	[33]

Notes

• Includes passenger aircraft only – Includes figures for main airlines' regional carrier(s), excludes other subsidiaries. For further information see below:
• ^1 Represents figures for American Airlines Group mainline only (which includes US Airways mainline).
• ^2 Represents figures for United mainline only.
• ^3 Represents figures for Delta mainline only.
• ^4 Includes figures for Xiamen Airlines, Shantou Airlines, Chongqing Airlines, Zhuhai Airlines, and Guizhou Airlines.
• ^5 Includes figures for Shenzhen Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Kunming Airlines, Tibet Airlines, Dalian Airlines, and Air Macau.
• ^6 Includes figures for Shanghai Airlines and China United Airlines.
• ^7 Includes figures for Lufthansa Regional and Germanwings.
• ^8 Includes figures for Air Canada Express and Air Canada Rouge.

Cargo airlines

Rank	Airline	Fleet size	Ref.
1	FedEx Express	656	[34]
2	DHL	250	[35]
3	UPS Airlines	237	[36]
4	TNT Airways	37	[37]
5	Korean Air Cargo	27	[38]
6	China Postal Airlines	22	[39]
7	Cathay Pacific Cargo	22	[40]
8	China Airlines Cargo	21	[41]
9	Cargolux	20	[42]
10	Lufthansa Cargo	20	[43]

By number of destinations

Rank	Airline	Destinations	Ref.
1	United Airlines1	374	[44]
2	American Airlines Group2	344	[45]
3	Delta Air Lines3	333	[46]
4	Turkish Airlines4	268	[47]
5	Lufthansa5	218	[48]
6	British Airways7	212	[49]
7	China Eastern Airlines6	217	[50]
8	Air Canada8	194	[51]
9	Air France9	191	[52]
10	China Southern Airlines	190	[53]

Notes

• Includes passenger airlines only.
• ^1 Includes figures for United Express.
• ^2 Represents figure for American Airlines Group.
• ^3 Includes figures for Delta Connection.
• ^4 Includes figures for AnadoluJet.
• ^5 Includes figures for Lufthansa Regional and Germanwings.
• ^6 Includes figures for Shanghai Airlines and China United Airlines.
• ^7 Includes figures for BA CityFlyer and OpenSkies.
• ^8 Includes figures for Air Canada Express and Air Canada Rouge.
• ^9 Includes figures for HOP! and Transavia France.

See also

References

External links

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