World's largest airlines
The world's largest airlines can be defined in several ways. American Airlines Group is the largest by its fleet size, revenue, profit, passengers carried and revenue passenger mile. Delta Air Lines is the largest by assets value and market capitalization. Lufthansa Group is the largest by number of employees, FedEx Express by freight tonne-kilometers, Ryanair by number of international passengers carried and Turkish Airlines by number of countries served.
Contents
By airline companies revenue

Rank | Airline | country | revenue ($B) | profit ($B) | assets ($B) | market cap. ($B) | employees |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | American Airlines Group[2] | ![]() |
40.9 | 7.6 | 48.4 | 22.1 | 118,500 |
2 | Delta Air Lines | ![]() |
39.6 | 4.7 | 53.3 | 34.4 | 83,000 |
3 | United Continental Holdings | ![]() |
36.5 | 7.1 | 40.9 | 17.1 | 84,000 |
4 | Lufthansa Group | ![]() |
33.9 | 1.9 | 36.3 | 7.3 | 120,652 |
5 | Air France-KLM | ![]() ![]() |
28.9 | 0.131 | 25.3 | 2.7 | 96,417 |
6 | International Airlines Group | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
25.3 | 1.7 | 30.7 | 15.4 | 60,862 |
7 | Southwest Airlines | ![]() |
20.2 | 2.2 | 22.2 | 30.2 | 49,600 |
8 | China Southern Airlines | ![]() |
17.7 | 0.620 | 28.7 | 8.4 | 87,202 |
9 | China Eastern Airlines | ![]() |
14.9 | 0.730 | 30.1 | 10.9 | 71,033 |
10 | All Nippon Airways | ![]() |
14.7 | 0.497 | 19.1 | 9.97 | 33,719 |
Note that Emirates Airlines is a government-owned company and is thus not included in this list of public companies. Its 2014-2015 revenue was AD88.819 billion (US$24.2 billion), profit AD4.555 billion (US$1.24 billion), and assets AD111.362 billion (US$30.34 billion) with 56,725 employees.
By passengers carried (thousands)
Rank | Airline | Country | 2015[3] | 2014[4] | 2013[5] | 2012[6] | 2011[7] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | American Airlines | ![]() |
146,530 | 87,830 | 86,823 | 86,335 | 86,042 |
2 | Southwest Airlines | ![]() |
144,575 | 129,087 | 115,323 | 112,234 | 110,587 |
3 | Delta Air Lines | ![]() |
138,842 | 129,433 | 120,636 | 116,726 | 113,731 |
4 | China Southern Airlines | ![]() |
109,301 | 100,683 | 91,504 | 86,277 | 80,545 |
5 | Ryanair | ![]() |
101,401 | 86,370 | 81,395 | 79,649 | 76,422 |
6 | United Airlines | ![]() |
95,384 | 90,439 | 90,161 | 92,619 | 50,473 |
7 | China Eastern Airlines | ![]() |
75,139 | 66,174 | 62,653 | 79,611 | |
8 | Easyjet | ![]() |
70,232 | 62,309 | 58,410 | ||
9 | Turkish Airlines | ![]() |
60 198 | ||||
10 | Air China | ![]() |
58,661 | 54,674 | |||
Lufthansa | ![]() |
59,850 | 63,273 | 64,393 | 63,012 |
LATAM carried 67.833 million passengers in 2014, more than China Eastern, and Turkish Airlines 54.675, more than Air China. These reports are not given by the IATA and could be from multiple air operator's certificates.
By scheduled passenger-kilometres flown (millions)
Rank | Airline | Country | 2015[8] | 2014[9] | 2013[10] | 2012[11] | 2011[12] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | American Airlines | ![]() |
320,813 | 208,046 | 206,551 | 203,336 | 203,485 |
2 | Delta Air Lines | ![]() |
302,512 | 290,862 | 277,560 | 271,567 | 269,724 |
3 | United Airlines | ![]() |
294,970 | 287,547 | 286,802 | 288,282 | 160,270 |
4 | Emirates | ![]() |
251,190 | 230,855 | 209,377 | 180,880 | 153,264 |
5 | China Southern Airlines | ![]() |
189,186 | 166,074 | 147,841 | 135,021 | 121,944 |
6 | Southwest Airlines | ![]() |
189,097 | 162,445 | 145,124 | 137,708 | 134,918 |
7 | Lufthansa | ![]() |
145,904 | 143,403 | 144,236 | 142,512 | 140,972 |
8 | British Airways | ![]() |
140,780 | 137,204 | 130,129 | 124,318 | 116,864 |
9 | Air France | ![]() |
139,217 | 134,528 | 136,405 | 135,821 | 133,035 |
10 | Ryanair | ![]() |
125,194 |
By scheduled freight tonne-kilometres (millions)
Rank | Airline | Country | 2015[8] | 2014[13] | 2013[14] | 2012[15] | 2011[16] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | FedEx Express | ![]() |
15,799 | 16,020 | 16,127 | 16,108 | 15,939 |
2 | Emirates SkyCargo | ![]() |
12,157 | 11,240 | 10,459 | 9,319 | 8,132 |
3 | UPS Airlines | ![]() |
10,807 | 10,936 | 10,584 | 10,416 | 10,566 |
4 | Cathay Pacific Cargo | ![]() |
9,935 | 9,464 | 8,241 | 8,433 | 9,109 |
5 | Korean Air Cargo | ![]() |
7,761 | 8,079 | 7,666 | 8,144 | 8,974 |
6 | Qatar Airways Cargo | ![]() |
7,660 | 5,997 | 4,972 | ||
7 | Lufthansa Cargo | ![]() |
6,888 | 7,054 | 7,218 | 7,175 | 7,674 |
8 | Cargolux | ![]() |
6,309 | 5,753 | 5,225 | ||
9 | Singapore Airlines Cargo | ![]() |
6,083 | 6,019 | 6,240 | 6,694 | 7,118 |
10 | Air China Cargo | ![]() |
5,718 | ||||
China Airlines Cargo | ![]() |
5,266 | 4,813 | 4,538 | 5,411 |
By fleet size
Rank | Airline | Country | Fleet (June 2016)[17] |
---|---|---|---|
1 | American Airlines | ![]() |
1,789[lower-alpha 1] |
2 | Delta Air Lines | ![]() |
1,330[lower-alpha 1] |
3 | United Airlines | ![]() |
1,229[lower-alpha 1] |
4 | Southwest Airlines | ![]() |
720 |
5 | FedEx Express | ![]() |
688 |
6 | China Southern Airlines | ![]() |
515 |
7 | China Eastern Airlines | ![]() |
453 |
8 | Air Canada | ![]() |
404[lower-alpha 1] |
9 | Air China | ![]() |
393[lower-alpha 2] |
10 | Ryanair | ![]() |
349 |
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By number of countries served
Rank | Airline | Country | countries served (March 2013)[18] |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Turkish Airlines | ![]() |
106 |
2 | Lufthansa | ![]() |
83 |
3 | Air France | ![]() |
78 |
3 | British Airways | ![]() |
78 |
5 | Qatar Airways | ![]() |
73 |
6 | Delta Air Lines | ![]() |
71 |
7 | Emirates | ![]() |
70 |
8 | KLM | ![]() |
66 |
8 | Egyptair | ![]() |
66 |
10 | United Airlines | ![]() |
60 |
See also
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- List of largest airlines in North America
- List of largest airlines in Europe
- List of largest airlines in Central America & the Caribbean
- List of largest airlines in Africa
- List of largest airlines in Asia
- List of largest airlines in South America
- List of largest airlines in Oceania
- Flag carrier
- List of the busiest airports in Africa by passenger traffic
- List of the busiest airports in Asia by passenger traffic
- List of the busiest airports in Europe by passenger traffic
- List of busiest airports in Latin America by passenger traffic
- List of airline holding companies
- List of the busiest airports
- List of busiest airports by passenger traffic
- List of busiest airports by aircraft movements
- List of busiest passenger air routes
References
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External links
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