American Airlines is one of the major US-based airlines headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the largest airline in the world when measured by scheduled passengers carried, revenue passenger mile, and fleet size. American, together with its regional partners and affiliates, operates an extensive international and domestic network with almost 6,800 flights per day to nearly 350 destinations in 48 countries. American Airlines is a founding member of the Oneworld alliance. Regional service is operated by independent and subsidiary carriers under the brand name American Eagle.
United Airlines, Inc. is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois. United operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and all six inhabited continents primarily out of its eight hubs, with Chicago–O'Hare having the largest number of daily flights and Denver carrying the most passengers in 2023. Regional service is operated by independent carriers under the brand name United Express.
Delta Air Lines is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The United States' oldest operating airline and the seventh oldest operating worldwide, Delta along with its subsidiaries and regional affiliates, including Delta Connection, operates over 5,400 flights daily and serves 325 destinations in 52 countries on six continents. Delta is a founding member of the SkyTeam airline alliance. As of the end of 2022, it had 90,000 employees.
Northwest Airlines Corp. was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 until 2010, when it merged with Delta Air Lines. The merger made Delta the largest airline in the world until the American Airlines–US Airways merger in 2013.
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is an international airport in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and is the primary airport serving Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. It the largest and busiest airport in the state, as well as the 43rd-busiest airport in the U.S. by passenger numbers. Located in Cleveland's Hopkins neighborhood 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Downtown Cleveland, it is adjacent to the Glenn Research Center, one of NASA's ten major field centers.
A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (LCC), also called no-frills, budget or discount carrier or airline, is an airline that is operated with an emphasis on minimizing operating costs. It sacrifices certain traditional airline luxuries, for cheaper fares. To make up for revenue lost in decreased ticket prices, the airline may charge extra fees such as for carry-on baggage. As of April 2020, the world's largest low-cost carrier is Southwest Airlines, which operates primarily in the United States, as well as in some surrounding areas.
Business class is a travel class available on many commercial airlines and rail lines, known by brand names which vary, by airline or rail company. In the airline industry, it was originally intended as an intermediate level of service between economy class and first class, but many airlines now offer business class as the highest level of service, having eliminated first class seating. Business class is distinguished from other travel classes by the quality of seating, food, drinks, ground service and other amenities. In commercial aviation, full business class is usually denoted 'J' or 'C' with schedule flexibility, but can be many other letters depending on circumstances.
An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and they must feature longer runways and have facilities to accommodate heavier aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and the Airbus A380 commonly used for international and intercontinental travel. International airports often also host domestic flights, which often help feed both passengers and cargo into international ones.
An airline hub or hub airport is an airport used by one or more airlines to concentrate passenger traffic and flight operations. Hubs serve as transfer points to help get passengers to their final destination. It is part of the hub-and-spoke system. An airline may operate flights from several non-hub (spoke) cities to the hub airport, and passengers traveling between spoke cities connect through the hub. This paradigm creates economies of scale that allow an airline to serve city-pairs that could otherwise not be economically served on a non-stop basis. This system contrasts with the point-to-point model, in which there are no hubs and nonstop flights are instead offered between spoke cities. Hub airports also serve origin and destination (O&D) traffic.
Aircraft engines produce gases, noise, and particulates from fossil fuel combustion, raising environmental concerns over their global effects and their effects on local air quality. Jet airliners contribute to climate change by emitting carbon dioxide, the best understood greenhouse gas, and, with less scientific understanding, nitrogen oxides, contrails and particulates. Their radiative forcing is estimated at 1.3–1.4 that of CO2 alone, excluding induced cirrus cloud with a very low level of scientific understanding. In 2018, global commercial operations generated 2.4% of all CO2 emissions.
A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. Freight hubs include classification yards, airports, seaports and truck terminals, or combinations of these. For private transport by car, the parking lot functions as a unimodal hub.
Nature Air was a regional airline headquartered in San José, Costa Rica that offered a scheduled service to a range of tourist destinations in Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua. It operated scheduled domestic and international services, as well as charter services with turboprop aircraft. Its hub, operations and maintenance base was Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) having moved in 2013 from its original location at Aeropuerto Internacional Tobías Bolaños (SYQ). Claiming to be the world's first carbon neutral airline, it was one of the first airlines to publicize its sustainability credentials during a period of rapidly-expanding interest in eco-tourism. Nature Air received a number of awards, including a Global Vision Award for Sustainability from Travel + Leisure magazine in 2011. Its fleet consisted primarily of DHC-6 Twin Otter and Cessna 208 Grand Caravan turboprop aircraft that were ideally suited to short takeoff and landing characteristics of its destinations which often featured gravel or limited-paved landing strips. In 2010, Nature Air advertised 74 daily flights to 15 destinations in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama. On 31 December 2017, all 10 passengers and two pilots aboard Nature Air Flight 9916 were killed in an aerodynamic stall shortly after takeoff from Punta Islita airstrip. Although the accident was ultimately determined by the NTSB to have been caused by pilot error, Nature Air stopped flying in January 2018 and its operating license was indefinitely suspended by the civil aviation authority of Costa Rica on May 2, 2018 leading to the closure of the airline.
Air Passenger Duty (APD) is an excise duty which is charged on the carriage of passengers flying from a United Kingdom or Isle of Man airport on an aircraft that has an authorised take-off weight of more than 5.7 tonnes or more than twenty seats for passengers. The duty is not payable by inbound international passengers who are booked to continue their journey within 24 hours of their scheduled time of arrival in the UK. If a passenger "stops-over" for more than 24 hours, duty is payable in full.
Air Philippines Corporation, operating as PAL Express and formerly branded as Air Philippines and Airphil Express, is a wholly-owned subsidiary airline of Philippine Airlines. It is PAL's regional brand, with services from its hubs in Manila, Clark, Cebu, and Davao.
The United States has an extensive air transportation network. In 2013, there were 86 airports in the U.S. that annually handled over 1,000,000 passengers each. The civil airline industry is entirely privately owned and has been largely deregulated since 1978, while most major airports are publicly owned. The three largest airlines in the world by passengers carried are U.S.-based; American Airlines is number one after its 2013 acquisition by US Airways. Of the world's 50 busiest passenger airports, 16 are in the United States, including the top five and the busiest, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. In terms of cargo, in 2015, eight of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's second-busiest, Memphis International Airport, just behind Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong. Private aircraft are also used for medical emergencies, government agencies, large businesses, and individuals.
Civil aviation in India, the world's third-largest civil aviation market as of 2020, traces its origin back to 1911, when the first commercial civil aviation flight took off from a polo ground in Allahabad carrying mail across the Yamuna river to Naini.
Aviation taxation and subsidies includes taxes and subsidies related to aviation.
Flight shame or flygskam is an anti-flying social movement, with the aim of reducing the environmental impact of aviation. Flight shame refers to an individual's uneasiness over engaging in consumption that is energy-intense and climatically problematic. It also reflects on air travelers as people involved in socially undesirable activities, and adaptive behaviour as described in the related Swedish term smygflyga. It started in 2018 in Sweden and gained traction the following year throughout northern Europe. Flygskam is a Swedish word that literally means "flight shame". The movement discourages people from flying to lower carbon emissions to thwart climate change.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the airline industry due to travel restrictions and a decimation in demand among travelers.
A short-haul flight ban is a prohibition imposed by governments on airlines to establish and maintain a flight connection over a certain distance, or by organisations or companies on their employees for business travel using existing flight connections over a certain distance, in order to mitigate the environmental impact of aviation. In the 21st century, several governments, organisations and companies have imposed restrictions and even prohibitions on short-haul flights, stimulating or pressuring travellers to opt for more environmentally friendly means of transportation, especially trains.
