Largest airlines in the world

The largest airlines in the world can be measured in several ways. As of 2024 ^[update] , United Airlines was the largest in terms of available seat miles (ASM), ^[1] revenue seat miles (RPM), ^[2] mainline fleet size, ^[3] the number of both mainline employees ^[4] and destinations served; ^[5] Delta Air Lines was the most valuable by revenue, assets, market capitalization, and brand value; ^[6] American Airlines Group carries the most passengers and has the most employees when American Eagle is included; FedEx Express carries the most freight in tonne-kilometers; Southwest Airlines has the greatest number of routes; and Turkish Airlines serves the most countries. ^[7]

Financial Performance

Delta Air Lines ranks first by revenue, total assets, market capitalization and brand value.

United Airlines ranks first in ASM, RPM, fleet size and number of both destinations and employees.

American Airlines Group ranks first by number of passengers carried.

Revenue ($b 2024)

Rank	Airline Group	Country	Revenue	Net Income	Assets	Market Cap	Employees
			(US$ billions)
1	Delta Air Lines	United States	61.6	3.5	75.3	39	103,000 [8]
2	United Airlines Holdings	United States	57.1	3.1	74.1	32	107,300 [9]
3	American Airlines Group	United States	54.2	1.3	68.8	11	133,300 [10]
4	Lufthansa Group	Germany	40.4	1.5	51.1	9	98,739
5	Air France–KLM	France/  Netherlands	36.2	0.69	37.5	2.4	76,566 [11]
6	International Airlines Group	Spain/  United Kingdom	34.2	2.9	41.6	21	71,794
7	Southwest Airlines	United States	27.5	0.47	33.8	17	72,450 [12]
8	China Southern Airlines	China	24.5	–0.59	43.7	13	97,899
9	Air China	China	23.0	1.6	22.0	17	87,190
10	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	22.5	6.8	35.6	12	57,991

Note that Emirates is a state-owned company, and is thus not included in this list of public companies. Its 2024 revenue was estimated to be around $37.4B or 5th place. Qatar Airways Group is similarly privately held with its 2024 revenue of around $22.2B or 10th place (with Emirates included).

Brand Value ($b 2024) ^[13]

Rank	Airline	Country	$bn	Year-to-year change
1	Delta Air Lines	United States	10.771	+20.7%
2	American Airlines	United States	10.242	+20.7%
3	United Airlines	United States	8.676	+11.5%
4	Emirates	United Arab Emirates	6.610	+29.5%
5	Southwest Airlines	United States	5.394	+14.7%
6	British Airways	United Kingdom	3.175	+45.2%
7	Qatar Airways	Qatar	3.138	+27.0%
8	Air Canada	Canada	2.805	+8.6%
9	China Southern Airlines	China	2.767	−14.3%
10	Ryanair	Ireland	2.541	+7.1%

Capacity

Available Seat Miles (ASM in billions) ^[14]

Rank	Airline	Country	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	Ref
1	United Airlines	United States	311	291	248	179	123	285	[15]
2	American Airlines	United States	293	278	260	215	143	285	[16]
3	Delta Air Lines	United States	288	272	233	194	134	275	[17]
4	Emirates	United Arab Emirates	222	230	177	99	40	228	[18]
5	Southwest Airlines	United States	178	170	148	132	103	157	[19]
6	Qatar Airways	Qatar	159	157	131	100	58	149	[20]
7	Ryanair	Ireland	159	152	138	91	30	118	[21]
8	China Southern Airlines	China	151	197	96	133	134	214	[22]
9	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	145	146	124	80	47	117	[23]
10	China Eastern Airlines	China	138	114	60	100	95	168	[24]

Available Seat Kilometers (ASK in billions)

Rank	Airline Group	Country	2022	2021	2020	2019
1	American Airlines Group	United States	347	259	147	388
2	United Airlines Holdings	United States	332	207	118	385
3	Delta Air Lines Group	United States	314	216	118	382
4	Air France–KLM	France/  Netherlands	237	116	81	275
5	Emirates	United Arab Emirates	225	93 #11	78	298
6	International Airlines Group	UK/  Spain	215	78 #15	72	285
7	Lufthansa Group	Germany	207	89 #13	69	296
8	Southwest Airlines	United States	199	166	87	211 #11
9	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	162	86 #14		153 #15
10	Qatar Airways	Qatar	154			172 #13
Sources			[25]	[26] [27]	[28]	[29]

Passengers (millions)

Rank	Airline Group	Country	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
1	American Airlines Group	United States	211	199	124	95	215	203
2	Delta Air Lines	United States	190	175	123	80	204	192
3	Ryanair	Ireland	182	168	97	52	148	142
4	United Airlines Holdings	United States	165	144	73	57	162	158
5	Southwest Airlines	United States	137	157	123	67	162	163
6	Lufthansa Group	Germany	123	101	24	36	145	142
7	Air France–KLM	France &   Netherlands	118	83		28 #14		85 #12
8	IAG	UK &   Spain	115	95	31 #12	118	112
9	IndiGo	India	105	75	48	35 #11		61 #16
10	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	83	72	45	28 #17=		75 #14
Sources			[30]	[25]	[31]	[28]	[32]	[33]

Available Seats (millions, 2025)

American Airlines leads by capacity to carry passengers.

Rank	Airline	Country	Annual capacity
1	American Airlines	United States	250
2	Delta Air Lines	United States	230
3	United Airlines	United States	214
4	Southwest Airlines	United States	208
5	China Southern Airlines	China	180
6	Ryanair	Ireland	170
7	China Eastern Airlines	China	162
8	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	130
9	easyJet	United Kingdom	127
10	Emirates	United Arab Emirates	100

Scheduled Freight (millions of CTK) ^[34]

For broader coverage of this topic, see Cargo airline.

FedEx Express is the largest by freight tonne-kilometers.

Rank	Airline	Country	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
1	FedEx Express	United States	17,923	19,547	20,660	19,656	17,503	17,499
2	Qatar Airways Cargo	Qatar	14,406	14,267	16,102	13,740	13,024	12,695
3	UPS Airlines	United States	14,239	15,889	15,529	14,371	12,842	12,459
4	Emirates SkyCargo	United Arab Emirates	10,636	10,153	11,842	9,569	12,052	12,713
5	Atlas Air	United States	8,915	8,675	8,441	5,458 #12	4,522 #16	4,553 #16
6	Korean Air Cargo	South Korea	8,411	9,518	10,429	8,104	7,412	7,839
7	Turkish Cargo	Turkey	8,325	8,318	9,223	6,977	7,029	5,890
8	Cathay Cargo	Hong Kong	8,099	5,774 #13	8,215	8,137	10,930	11,284
9	China Southern Airlines Cargo	China	7,610	6,915	8,078	6,591	6,825	6,597
10	Cargolux	Luxembourg	6,807	7,971	8,587	7,345	7,180	7,322

Fleet Size

Aircraft operated (March 2025) ^[35]

United Airlines operates the largest number of aircraft, as of March 2025.

Rank	Airline	Country	No.	Ref.
1	United Airlines	United States	1009	[36]
2	American Airlines	United States	982	[37]
3	Delta Air Lines	United States	980	[38]
4	Air China	China	907	[ citation needed ]
5	Southwest Airlines	United States	797	[39]
6	China Southern Airlines	China	653	[ citation needed ]
7	China Eastern Airlines	China	652	[ citation needed ]
8	SkyWest Airlines	United States	624	[40]
9	Ryanair	Ireland	607	[ citation needed ]
10	Lufthansa	Germany	514	[ citation needed ]

Aircraft owned (January 2025)

China National Aviation Holdings Air China Group has the world's most valuable fleet, despite owning fewer aircraft than Delta Air Lines, Inc. or American Airlines Group, which co-lead by numbers.

Rank	Holding company	No.	Value ($bn)
1	United Airlines Holdings	1,007	17.9
2	Delta Air Lines, Inc.	987	15.8
3	Air China Group	907	19.0
4	American Airlines Group	854	16.7
5	Southwest Airlines	830	16.8
6	Lufthansa Group	721	11.7
7	China Southern Airlines	663	17.3
8	China Eastern Airlines	652	18.5
9	Ryanair Holdings	607	15.3
10	Air France-KLM Group	572	10.7
11	IAG	570	10.4
12	SkyWest, Inc.	520	4.5

Network

Countries served (August 2024)

Turkish Airlines serves the largest number of countries, as of February 2024.

Main article: List of airlines by countries served

Rank	Airline	Country	No.	Ref.
1	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	122	[41]
2	Qatar Airways	Qatar	88	[42]
3	Ethiopian Airlines	Ethiopia	86	[43]
4	Air France	France	84	[44]
5	Emirates	United Arab Emirates	80	[45]
=6	British Airways	United Kingdom	76	[46]
=6	Lufthansa	Germany	76	[47]
8	United Airlines	United States	75	[48]
9	KLM	Netherlands	64	[49]
10	American Airlines	United States	61	[50]

Passenger Destinations served (January 2025) ^[51]

Main article: List of airlines with more than 100 destinations

United Airlines serves the largest number of destinations, as of February 2024.

Rank	Airline	Country	No.
1	United Airlines	United States	374
2	American Airlines	United States	355
3	Delta Air Lines	United States	311
4	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	287
5	Ryanair	Ireland	239
6	China Southern Airlines	China	238
7	China Eastern Airlines	China	224
8	Air France	France	216
8	Lufthansa	Germany	216
8	British Airways	United Kingdom	216

Routes served (February 2024)

Southwest Airlines serves the largest number of routes, as of February 2024.

Rank	Airline	Country	No.	Ref.
1	Southwest Airlines	United States	3,161	[52]
2	Ryanair	Ireland	2,631	[53]
3	American Airlines	United States	1,237	[50]
4	China Eastern Airlines	China	1,051
5	United Airlines	United States	1,033
6	Delta Air Lines	United States	975
7	China Southern Airlines	China	963
8	Air China	China	641
9	IndiGo	India	610
10	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	531

Daily Flights (August 2024) ^[54]

Rank	Airline	Country	No.
1	American Airlines	United States	4,753
2	United Airlines	United States	4,101
3	Ryanair	Ireland	3,292
4	Southwest Airlines	United States	3,274
5	Delta Air Lines	United States	2,872
6	China Eastern Airlines	China	2,387
7	China Southern Airlines	China	2,268
8	IndiGo	India	2,074
9	Air China	China	1,681
10	easyJet	United Kingdom	1,338

See also

• Aviation portal
• Companies portal
• Transport portal
• Lists portal

• Flag carrier
• List of largest airlines in North America
• List of largest airlines in Europe
• List of largest airlines in Central America and 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
• List of airline holding companies
• List of the busiest airports in Africa
• List of the busiest airports in Asia
• List of the busiest airports in Europe
• List of the busiest airports in Latin America
• 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

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