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.

By airline companies revenue

American Airlines Boeing 777-200ER

Lufthansa Airbus A380-800

Forbes' World’s Biggest Public Companies^[1]

Rank	Airline	country	revenue ($B)	profit ($B)	assets ($B)	market cap. ($B)	employees
1	American Airlines Group[2]		40.99	7.61	48.41	22.1	118,500
2	Delta Air Lines		40.5	4.7	53.3	34.4	83,000
3	United Continental Holdings		37.5	7.1	40.9	17.1	84,000
4	Lufthansa Group		35.5	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 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 (thousands)

Delta Air Lines Boeing 747-400

Rank	Airline	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 Airlines	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)

United Airlines Boeing 787

Rank	Airline	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)

FedEx Express McDonnell Douglas MD-11F

Rank	Airline	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

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700

Rank	Airline	Fleet (June 2016)[17]
1	American Airlines	1,556[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	429
8	Air Canada	404[lower-alpha 1]
9	Air China	384[lower-alpha 2]
10	Ryanair	349

1. Includes aircraft operated by regional partners
2. Includes aircraft operated by Air China Cargo

By number of countries served

Turkish Airlines Boeing 777-300ER

Rank	Airline	countries served (November 2016)
1	Turkish Airlines	117
2	Lufthansa	78
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

By number of destinations served

China Eastern Airlines Airbus A330-200

Rank	Airline	Destinations served (August 2016)
1	American Airlines	350
2	United Airlines	342
3	Delta Air Lines	335
4	Turkish Airlines	292
5	China Eastern Airlines	217
6	Lufthansa	216
7	Air Canada	200
8	Ryanair	192
9	China Southern Airlines	190
10	Air France	186

See also

• 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
• World's busiest airport
• World's busiest airports by passenger traffic
• World's busiest airports by traffic movements
• World's busiest passenger air routes

References

1. "Global 2000 Leading Companies". Forbes. May 2016.
2. "American Airlines group". World’s Biggest Public Companies. Forbes.
3. "Global Air Traffic & Top Airlines 2016 (IATA)". IMM International. 28 June 2016.
4. "Scheduled Passengers Carried". World Air Transport Statistics 59th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on June 18, 2015.
5. "Scheduled Passengers Carried". World Air Transport Statistics 58th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on January 2, 2015.
6. "Scheduled Passengers Carried". World Air Transport Statistics 57th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on November 13, 2013.
7. "Scheduled Passengers Carried". World Air Transport Statistics 56th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on December 17, 2012.
8. "Summary of passenger and freight traffic" (PDF). World Air Transport Statistics. IATA. 2016.
9. "Scheduled Passenger - Kilometres Flown". World Air Transport Statistics 59th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on July 6, 2015.
10. "Scheduled Passenger - Kilometres Flown". World Air Transport Statistics 58th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on November 11, 2014.
11. "Scheduled Passenger - Kilometres Flown". World Air Transport Statistics 57th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013.
12. "Scheduled Passenger - Kilometres Flown". World Air Transport Statistics 56th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on December 16, 2012.
13. "Scheduled Freight Tonne - Kilometres". World Air Transport Statistics 59th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on July 4, 2015.
14. "Scheduled Freight Tonne - Kilometres". World Air Transport Statistics 58th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on November 25, 2014.
15. "Scheduled Freight Tonne - Kilometres". World Air Transport Statistics 57th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013.
16. "Scheduled Freight Tonne - Kilometres". World Air Transport Statistics 56th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on December 15, 2012.
17. "Top 10 World's Largest Airlines". AirportSpotting. 7 July 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.

External links