Largest airlines in the world facts for kids

The largest airlines in the world are huge companies that can be measured in many ways. For example, in 2025, United Airlines had the most planes and flew to the most places. Delta Air Lines made the most money and had the highest brand value. American Airlines Group carried the most passengers and had the most employees. FedEx Express moved the most cargo. Southwest Airlines had the most flight routes, and Turkish Airlines flew to the most countries.

In 2023, Forbes magazine said Delta Air Lines earned the most money among public airlines. American Airlines Group and United Airlines Holdings were next. Some big airlines like Emirates and Qatar Airways are not on this list because they are owned by governments or private groups, not public investors. Brand Finance, a company that studies brands, said in 2024 that Delta Air Lines had the most valuable airline brand. American Airlines and United Airlines were also very high on this list. Emirates and Qatar Airways also have very valuable brands.

American Airlines Group flew the most passengers in 2021. Delta Air Lines and Ryanair were close behind. United Airlines, Lufthansa, and Southwest Airlines also carried many passengers. This shows that airlines in the US and Europe fly a lot of people.

How Airlines Make Money

American Airlines Group has the most employees and carries the most passengers.

Airlines are big businesses. We can compare them by how much money they make, how much their brand is worth, and how many passengers they fly.

Money Earned (Revenue)

Revenue is the total amount of money a company brings in from selling tickets and other services. Profit is the money left after all costs are paid. Assets are things the company owns, like planes and buildings. Market cap is how much the company is worth on the stock market.

Forbes' world's biggest public airline companies by revenue (as of May 2024)

Rank	Airline	Country	Revenue	Profit	Assets	Market cap.	Employees
			(US$ billions)
1	Delta Air Lines	United States	59	5	75	34	100,000
2	United Airlines Holdings	United States	54.8	2.7	71.9	18.1	103,300
3	American Airlines Group	United States	53.2	0.5	64.4	9.7	132,100
4	Lufthansa Group	Germany	38.8	1.5	51.1	8.7	96,677
5	Air France–KLM	France/ Netherlands	32.9	0.69	37.5	3	75,000
6	International Airlines Group	Spain/ United Kingdom	31.8	2.9	41.6	11.1	71,794
7	Southwest Airlines	United States	26.7	0.43	36	16.7	74,806
8	China Southern Airlines	China	22.5	–0.59	43.7	7.3	99,468
9	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	21.2	6.8	35.6	13.8	55,884
10	Air Canada	Canada	16.4	1.6	22	4.8	35,675
11	China Eastern Airlines	China	16	–1.2	40.1	5.5	81,781

Note that Emirates is owned by the government, so it's not on this list of public companies. Its revenue was about US$37.4 billion in 2024. If it were public, it would be in 5th place. Qatar Airways Group is also privately owned. Its 2024 revenue was about US$22.2 billion.

Brand Value

Brand value is how much a company's name and reputation are worth. A strong brand means people trust the airline and want to fly with it.

Largest airlines by brand value (US$ billions) according to Brand Finance (2024)

Rank	Airline	Country	$bn	Year-to-year change
1	Delta Air Lines	United States	10.771	&10000000000000020724052+20.7%
2	American Airlines	United States	10.242	&10000000000000020664467+20.7%
3	United Airlines	United States	8.676	&10000000000000011488049+11.5%
4	Emirates	United Arab Emirates	6.610	&10000000000000029506269+29.5%
5	Southwest Airlines	United States	5.394	&10000000000000014692749+14.7%
6	British Airways	United Kingdom	3.175	&10000000000000045242451+45.2%
7	Qatar Airways	Qatar	3.138	&10000000000000027044534+27.0%
8	Air Canada	Canada	2.805	&10000000000000008552631+8.6%
9	China Southern Airlines	China	2.767	Template:Number table sorting/negative−14.3%
10	Ryanair	Ireland	2.541	&10000000000000007124789+7.1%

How Many Flights They Do

Airlines can also be compared by how many passengers they carry, how far they fly them, and how much cargo they transport.

Passengers Carried

This table shows how many millions of people each airline group flew in different years.

Millions of passengers carried

Rank	Airline group	Country	2022	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012
1	American Airlines Group	United States	199	95.3	215	203	199	198	146	87.8	86.8	86.3
2	Delta Air Lines	United States	175	80.0	204	192	186	183	138	129	120	116
3	Ryanair	Ireland	168	52.4	148	142	130	119	101	86.3	81.3	79.6
4	Southwest Airlines	United States	157	67.8	162	163	157	151	144	129	115	112
5	United Airlines Holdings	United States	144	57.8	162	158	148	143	95.3	90.4	90.1	92.6
6	Lufthansa Group	Germany	101	36.4	145	142	130	117	115	112	110	108
7	IAG	UK &  Spain	94.7	31.3 #12	118	112	104	100	94.9	77.3	67.2	54.6
8	Air France–KLM	France &  Netherlands	83.3	28.9 #14		85.6 #12
9	IndiGo	India	75.3	35.0 #11		61.9 #16
10	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	71.8	28.0 #17=		75.2 #14

Passenger-Kilometers Flown

Passenger-kilometers means the total number of passengers multiplied by the distance they flew. For example, 1 passenger flying 100 kilometers is 100 passenger-kilometers.

American Airlines and United Express planes at Los Angeles International Airport.

Airline holding groups

Rank	Airline group	Country	2022	2021	2020	2019	2017	2016	2015	2013
1	American Airlines Group	United States	347	259	147	388	364	~359	358	~206
2	United Airlines Holdings	United States	332	207	118	385	347	~328	335	~287
3	Delta Air Lines Group	United States	314	216	118	382	350	~342	337	~278
4	Air France–KLM	France/ Netherlands	237	116	81.2	275	248	~238	235	~228
5	Emirates	United Arab Emirates	225	93.7 #11	78.7	298	292	~270	255	~209
6	International Airlines Group	UK/ Spain	215	78.6 #15	72.2	285	252	~243	221	~186
7	Lufthansa Group	Germany	207	89.3 #13	69.4	296	261	~226	220	~153
8	Southwest Airlines	United States	199	166	87.2	211 #11	207	~200	189	~167
9	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	162			153 #15
10	Qatar Airways	Qatar	154			172 #13

Individual airlines

Rank	Airline	Country	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013
1	American Airlines	United States	308	237	123	342	330	323	320	320	208	206
2	United Airlines	United States	305	178	100	342	329	310	299	294	287	286
3	Delta Air Lines	United States	292	195	106	350	330	316	308	302	290	277
4	Emirates	United Arab Emirates	225	93.7	78.7	299	302	288	270	251	230	209
5	Ryanair	Ireland	~207	120	64.9	185	170	157	142	125
6	Southwest Airlines	United States	199	166	87.2	211	214	207	200	189	162	145
7	Qatar Airways	Qatar	~168	91.5	57.1	172	152 #11		137 #11
8	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	162	86.7	52.2 #11	150 #14	145 #13		125 #14
9	Air France	France	123	60.1 #13	48.8 #12	150 #13	143 #14		136 #12	139	134	136
10	Lufthansa	Germany	119	50.0 #17	37.5 #16	165 #11	158	152	149	145	143	144

Freight Tonne-Kilometers

Freight tonne-kilometers measures how much cargo (freight) an airline carries and how far. One tonne flown for one kilometer is one tonne-kilometer.

FedEx Express carries the most cargo by tonne-kilometers.

Rank	Airline	Country	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014
1	FedEx Express	United States	17,923	19,547	20,660	19,656	17,503	17,499	16,851	15,712	15,799	16,020
2	Qatar Airways Cargo	Qatar	14,406	14,267	16,102	13,740	13,024	12,695	10,999	9,221	7,660	5,997
3	UPS Airlines	United States	14,239	15,889	15,529	14,371	12,842	12,459	11,940	11,264	10,807	10,936
4	Emirates SkyCargo	United Arab Emirates	10,636	10,153	11,842	9,569	12,052	12,713	12,715	12,270	12,157	11,240
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	8,015	7,666	7,761	8,079
7	Turkish Cargo	Turkey	8,325	8,318	9,223	6,977	7,029	5,890 #12	4,728 #15	3,640 #20
8	Cathay Pacific Cargo	Hong Kong	8,099	5,774 #13	8,215	8,137	10,930	11,284	10,772	9,947	9,935	9,464
9	China Southern Airlines Cargo	China	7,610	6,915	8,078	6,591	6,825	6,597	6,174 #11	5,939 #11	5,355 #11	4,736 #12
10	Cargolux	Luxembourg	6,807	7,971	8,587	7,345	7,180	7,322	7,322	6,878	6,309	5,753

How Many Planes They Have

Airlines can also be compared by the size of their fleet (all their planes).

Aircraft Operated

This means all the planes an airline uses, whether they own them or rent them.

United Airlines uses the most planes as of January 2025.

January 2025

Rank	Airline	Country	No.
1	United Airlines	United States	999
2	Delta Air Lines	United States	987
3	American Airlines	United States	978
4	Southwest Airlines	United States	799
5	China Southern Airlines	China	667
6	China Eastern Airlines	China	657
7	Air China	China	508
8	SkyWest Airlines	United States	486
9	FedEx Express	United States	393
10	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	379

Aircraft Owned

This table shows how many planes an airline company actually owns.

China National Aviation Holdings Air China Group has the most valuable fleet.

January 2025

Rank	Holding company	No.	Value ($bn)
1	United Airlines Holdings	992	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	China Southern Airlines	663	17.3
7	China Eastern Airlines	652	18.5
8	Ryanair Holdings	607	15.3
9	SkyWest, Inc.	520	4.5
10	Lufthansa Group	514	11.7

Aircraft Capacity (Seats)

Aircraft capacity means how many seats an airline has available across all its flights in a year.

American Airlines can carry the most passengers.

2025

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

Where Airlines Fly

Airlines also differ by how many countries, destinations, and routes they serve.

Countries Served

This shows how many different countries an airline flies to.

Turkish Airlines flies to the most countries as of February 2024.

August 2024

Rank	Airline	Country	No.
1	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	120
2	Qatar Airways	Qatar	89
3	Air France	France	85
4	Ethiopian Airlines	Ethiopia	84
5	Emirates	United Arab Emirates	80
=6	British Airways	United Kingdom	77
=6	Lufthansa	Germany	77
8	United Airlines	United States	73
9	American Airlines	United States	63
10	KLM	Netherlands	62

Passenger Destinations Served

This shows how many different cities or airports an airline flies to.

United Airlines flies to the most places as of February 2024.

August 2024

Rank	Airline	Country	No.
1	United Airlines	United States	371
2	American Airlines	United States	356
3	Delta Air Lines	United States	311
4	Turkish Airlines	Turkey	287
5	China Southern Airlines	China	247
6	Ryanair	Ireland	234
7	China Eastern Airlines	China	226
8	Lufthansa	Germany	219
9	British Airways	United Kingdom	214
10	Air France	France	205

Routes Served

A route is a specific path between two airports. This table shows how many different routes an airline flies.

Southwest Airlines flies the most routes as of February 2024.

February 2024

Rank	Airline	Country	No.
1	Southwest Airlines	United States	3,161
2	Ryanair	Ireland	2,631
3	American Airlines	United States	1,237
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

Number of Daily Flights

This table shows how many flights an airline operates each day.

August 2024

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