Largest airlines in the world
The largest airlines in the world can be defined in several ways., American Airlines Group was the largest by fleet size, passengers carried and revenue passenger mile. Delta Air Lines was the largest by revenue, assets value and market capitalization. Lufthansa Group was the largest by number of employees, FedEx Express by freight tonne-kilometers, Turkish Airlines by number of countries served and UPS Airlines by number of destinations served.
By revenue
Note that Emirates is a state-owned company and is thus not included in this list of public companies. Its 2014-2015 revenue was billion, profit billion, and assets billion, with 56,725 employees.By passengers carried
| Rank | Airline | Country | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 |
| 1 | American Airlines Group | 215.18 | 203.74 | 199.6 | 198.7 | 146.53 | 87.83 | 86.823 | 86.335 | 86.042 | |
| 2 | Delta Air Lines | 204.00 | 192.46 | 186.4 | 183.7 | 138.842 | 129.433 | 120.636 | 116.726 | 113.731 | |
| 3 | Southwest Airlines | 162.68 | 163.60 | 157.8 | 151.8 | 144.575 | 129.087 | 115.323 | 112.234 | 110.587 | |
| 4 | United Airlines | 162.44 | 158.33 | 148.1 | 143.2 | 95.384 | 90.439 | 90.161 | 92.619 | 50.473 | |
| 5 | Ryanair | 152.4 | 139.2 | 130.3 | 119.8 | 101.401 | 86.370 | 81.395 | 79.649 | 76.422 | |
| 6 | China Southern Airlines | 151.63 | 139.8 | 126.3 | 84.9 | 109.301 | 100.683 | 91.504 | 86.277 | 80.545 | |
| 7 | Lufthansa Group | 145.2 | 142.3 | 130.0 | 117.4 | 115.2 | 112.5 | 110.4 | 108.9 | 112.0 | |
| 8 | China Eastern Airlines | 121.1 | 110.8 | 80.9 | 75.139 | 66.174 | 62.653 | 79.61 | 73.1 | ||
| 9 | IAG | // | 118.3 | 112.92 | 104.83 | 100.7 | 94.9 | 77.3 | 67.2 | 54.6 | 51.7 |
| 10 | Air China Group | 115.00 | 109.7 | 101.6 | 96.5 | 89.8 | 83.0 | 77.7 | 72.4 | 69.4 |
The IATA reports numbers for individual air operator's certificates and groups of multiple airlines can report larger numbers.
By scheduled passenger-kilometers flown (millions)
| Rank | Group | Country | 2017 |
| 1 | American Airlines Group | 364,191 | |
| 2 | Delta Air Lines | 350,299 | |
| 3 | United Airlines Holdings | 347,963 | |
| 4 | The Emirates Group | 292,221 | |
| 5 | Lufthansa Group | 261,156 | |
| 6 | International Airlines Group | / | 252,819 |
| 7 | Air France–KLM | / | 248,476 |
| 8 | China Southern Airlines | 230,697 | |
| 9 | Southwest Airlines | 207,802 | |
| 10 | Air China | 201,090 |
By scheduled freight ton-kilometers (millions)
| Rank | Airline | Country | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 |
| 1 | FedEx Express | 17,499 | 16,851 | 15,712 | 15,799 | 16,020 | 16,127 | 16,108 | 15,939 | |
| 2 | Emirates SkyCargo | 12,713 | 12,715 | 12,270 | 12,157 | 11,240 | 10,459 | 9,319 | 8,132 | |
| 3 | Qatar Airways Cargo | 12,695 | 10,999 | 9,221 | 7,660 | 5,997 | 4,972 | |||
| 4 | UPS Airlines | 12,459 | 11,940 | 11,264 | 10,807 | 10,936 | 10,584 | 10,416 | 10,566 | |
| 5 | Cathay Pacific Cargo | 11,284 | 10,772 | 9,947 | 9,935 | 9,464 | 8,241 | 8,433 | 9,109 | |
| 6 | Korean Air Cargo | 7,839 | 8,015 | 7,666 | 7,761 | 8,079 | 7,666 | 8,144 | 8,974 | |
| 7 | Lufthansa Cargo | 7,394 | 7,317 | 7,384 | 6,888 | 7,054 | 7,218 | 7,175 | 7,674 | |
| 8 | Cargolux | 7,322 | 7,322 | 6,878 | 6,309 | 5,753 | 5,225 | |||
| 9 | Air China Cargo | 7,051 | 6,701 | 6,089 | 5,718 | |||||
| 10 | China Southern Airlines | 6,597 | ||||||||
| Singapore Airlines Cargo | 6,592 | 6,345 | 6,083 | 6,019 | 6,240 | 6,694 | 7,118 |
By fleet size
| Rank | Airline | Country | Fleet | Widebody | Narrowbody | Regional aircraft |
| 1 | American Airlines | 957 | 20 | |||
| 2 | Delta Air Lines | 880 | ||||
| 3 | United Airlines | 777 | ||||
| 4 | Southwest Airlines | 753 | 753 | |||
| 5 | China Eastern Airlines | 607 | 3 | |||
| 6 | China Southern Airlines | 603 | 19 | |||
| 7 | SkyWest | 486 | 486 | |||
| 8 | Ryanair | 456 | 456 | |||
| 9 | Air China | 439 | ||||
| 10 | FedEx Express | 378 | 111 | - | ||
| 11 | Lufthansa | 360 | ||||
| 12 | Turkish Airlines | 332 |
By number of countries served
| Rank | Airline | Country | Countries served |
| 1 | Turkish Airlines | 121 | |
| 2 | Air France | 91 | |
| 3 | British Airways | 82 | |
| 4 | Ethiopian Airlines | 81 | |
| 5 | Emirates | 78 | |
| 6 | Qatar Airways | 78 | |
| 7 | Lufthansa | 75 | |
| 8 | KLM | 67 | |
| 9 | American Airlines | 62 | |
| 9 | United Airlines | 62 |
By number of routes
| Rank | Airline | Country | Routes served |
| 1 | Ryanair | 1,831 | |
| 2 | American Airlines | 1,106 | |
| 3 | United Airlines | 950 | |
| 4 | easyJet | 945 | |
| 5 | Delta Air Lines | 939 | |
| 6 | Southwest Airlines | 754 | |
| 7 | China Southern Airlines | 667 | |
| 7 | China Eastern Airlines | 648 | |
| 8 | Wizz Air | 615 | |
| 9 | Air China | 470 | |
| 10 | TUI Airways | 470 |
By number of destinations
| Rank | Airline | Country | Destinations |
| 1 | UPS Airlines | 815 | |
| 2 | FedEx Express | 375 | |
| 3 | United Airlines | 373 | |
| 4 | American Airlines | 350 | |
| 5 | Delta Air Lines | 320 | |
| 6 | Turkish Airlines | 302 | |
| 7 | Lufthansa | 274 | |
| 8 | China Eastern Airlines | 217 | |
| 9 | Air France | 204 | |
| 10 | Air China | 201 |
By brand value
| Rank | Airline | Country | $bn |
| 1 | American Airlines | 9.094 | |
| 2 | Delta Air Lines | 8.712 | |
| 3 | United Airlines | 7.027 | |
| 4 | Emirates | 5.336 | |
| 5 | Southwest Airlines | 5.298 | |
| 6 | China Southern Airlines | 4.063 | |
| 7 | China Eastern Airlines | 3.81 | |
| 8 | British Airways | 3.484 | |
| 9 | Air China | 3.433 | |
| 10 | Lufthansa | 2.914 |