Ryanair confirmed as world’s largest international airline

Tuesday, 24 Jun, 2015 0

Delta is the world’s largest airline in terms of passenger numbers, but Ryanair carries more passengers on international routes than any other.

Latest data released by IATA revealed that Ryanair carried 86.3 million international passengers last year, making it the world’s largest international airline, well ahead of easyJet in second place with 56.3 million.

British Airways lagged well behind in fifth place with 35.3 million, after Lufthansa with 48.2m and Emirates with 47.2m.

Delta Air Lines carried more than 129 million passengers on domestic and international routes, making it by far the largest airline overall.

In terms of international and domestic passengers carried, Ryanair was the sixth largest in the world and easyJet the eighth biggest. Aside from Lufthansa, they were the only two non-US or Chinese airlines to feature in the top 10.

Total (International + Domestic)

Rank 

Airline

Thousands

1

Delta Air Lines

129,433

2

Southwest Airlines

129,087

3

China Southern Airlines

100,683

4

United Airlines

90,439

5

American Airlines

87,830

6

Ryanair 

86,370

7

China Eastern Airlines 

66,174

8

easyJet

62,309

9

Lufthansa

59,850

10

Air China

54,577

 

International

Rank 

Airline

     Thousands

1

Ryanair

86,370

2

easyJet

56,312

3

Lufthansa

48,244

4

Emirates

47,278

5

British Airways

35,364

6

Air France

31,682

7

Turkish Airlines

31,016

8

KLM

27,740

9

United Airlines

25,708

10

Delta Air Lines

    24,243

 

Domestic

Rank 

Airline

Thousands

1

Southwest Airlines

129,087

2

Delta Air Lines

105,190

3

China Southern Airlines

91,729

4

American Airlines

67,761

5

United Airlines

64,731

6

China Eastern Airlines 

57,986

7

US Airways

48,043

8

Air China

46,466

9

All Nippon Airways

39,277

10

Gol Airlines

36,311

 



 

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Linsey McNeill

Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk



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