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 and profit, by passengers carried and revenue passenger mile. Lufthansa Group is the largest by number of employees, FedEx Express by freight tonne-kilometers, Emirates 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]		42.7	2.88	43.8	33.5	113,300
2	Delta Air Lines		40.3	0.659	54.1	34.4	79,655
3	United Continental Holdings		38.9	1.1	37.4	23.1	84,000
4	Lufthansa Group		33.8	.058	33.4	6.15	118,781
5	Air France-KLM		27.8	.263	25.4	2.7	94,666
6	International Airlines Group		22.7	1.3	28.6	18.2	59,484
7	Southwest Airlines		18.6	1.1	20.2	27.7	46,278
8	China Southern Airlines		17.6	.288	30.6	11.7	82,132
9	All Nippon Airways		15.9	.358	19.3	9.7	33,719
10	China Eastern Airlines		14.6	.554	26.4	12.7	69,849

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.

Delta Air Lines Boeing 747-400

By scheduled passenger-miles flown (millions)

Rank	Airline	2014[3]	2013[4]	2012[5]	2011[6]
1	American Airlines	217,870	215,541	209,938
2	Delta Air Lines	202,925	194,988	192,974	192,767
3	United Airlines	202,166	197,662
4	China Southern	129,273
5	Southwest	122,605	112,564	106,383	103,810
6	Lufthansa	100,938	90,175	85,567	83,834
7	British Airways	89,106	89,624	88,552	87,595
8	Air France	85,254	80,858	77,247	73,858
9	Air China	83,591	84,758	84,395	82,664
10

By scheduled freight tonne-kilometres (millions)

FedEx Express McDonnell Douglas MD-11F

Rank	Airline	2014[7]	2013[8]	2012[9]	2011[10]
1	FedEx Express	16,020	16,127	16,108	15,939
2	Emirates SkyCargo	11,240	10,459	9,319	8,132
3	UPS Airlines	10,936	10,584	10,416	10,566
4	Cathay Pacific Cargo	9,464	8,241	8,433	9,109
5	Korean Air Cargo	8,079	7,666	8,144	8,974
6	Lufthansa Cargo	7,054	7,218	7,175	7,674
7	Singapore Airlines Cargo	6,019	6,240	6,694	7,118
8	Qatar Airways Cargo	5,997	4,972
9	Cargolux	5,753	5,225
10	China Airlines Cargo	5,266	4,813	4,538	5,411
11	British Airways			4,732
12	EVA Air			4,470	4,882

By fleet size

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700

Rank	Airline (including contract carriers)	Fleet[11]
1	American Airlines Group	1,494
2	Delta Air Lines	1,280
3	United Continental Holdings	1,264
4	Southwest Airlines	717
5	FedEx Express	649
6	Lufthansa Group	616
7	Air France-KLM	572
8	International Airlines Group	525
9	China Southern Airlines	520
10	Air Canada	408
11	China Eastern Airlines	405
13	Ryanair	321
12	Air China	338
14	LATAM Airlines Group	320
15	Turkish Airlines	304

By number of countries served

Rank	Airline	countries served[12]
1	Turkish Airlines	111[13]
2=	Emirates	83
2=	Lufthansa Group	83
4=	Air France-KLM	78
4=	IAG	78
6	Qatar Airways	74
7	United Airlines	70
8	Delta Air Lines	68
9	Singapore Airlines	66
10	Etihad Airways	60

By international passengers (millions)

The largest airlines in 2016 by international passengers carried (excluding flights within Europe) were:

Rank	Airline	Passengers[14]
1	Emirates	51,333
2	Turkish Airlines	48,370
3	Qatar Airways	46,312
4	American Airlines	41,803
5	Lufthansa	39,244
6	Air France	35,682
7	British Airways	31,016
8	KLM	29,740
9	Delta Air Lines	25,708
10	Cathay Pacific	24,243

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 2015.
2. "American Airlines group". World’s Biggest Public Companies. Forbes.
3. "Scheduled Passenger - Kilometres Flown". World Air Transport Statistics 59th Edition. IATA.
4. "Scheduled Passenger - Kilometres Flown". World Air Transport Statistics 58th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on November 11, 2014.
5. "Scheduled Passenger - Kilometres Flown". World Air Transport Statistics 57th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013.
6. "Scheduled Passenger - Kilometres Flown". World Air Transport Statistics 56th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on December 16, 2012.
7. "Scheduled Freight Tonne - Kilometres". World Air Transport Statistics 59th Edition. IATA.
8. "Scheduled Freight Tonne - Kilometres". World Air Transport Statistics 58th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on November 25, 2014.
9. "Scheduled Freight Tonne - Kilometres". World Air Transport Statistics 57th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013.
10. "Scheduled Freight Tonne - Kilometres". World Air Transport Statistics 56th Edition. IATA. Archived from the original on December 15, 2012.
11. "World Airline Fleets: Top 10 Aviation Armadas With Most Airplanes". FinancesOnline. 17 December 2013.
12. Gunnar Garfors (5 March 2013). "These Airlines Fly to Most Countries".
13. Türk Hava Yolları (c) 2015. "International Flight Destinations & Special Offers - Turkish Airlines".
14. IATA. "IATA - WATS Sample - Scheduled Passengers Carried".

External links