World’s top 10 airlines
World’s Biggest Airlines: If you have gone to the airport in the last few days, the scene there would have been no less crowded than that of a railway station. Images of long queues of passengers standing at check-in counters, frustrated faces and people struggling to get information about their flight had become common recently. The country’s Indigo airline, on which about 66 percent of India’s air travel depends, is going through a major technical and system related crisis.
This chaos has definitely raised a question in the mind of the common traveler that how big can an airline be? When we talk about the ‘largest’ airline, IndiGo’s name comes to mind in India, but do you know who is the real king in terms of ‘fleet size’ globally?
It occupies the crown of number-1
There are many parameters to being the world’s largest airline, such as annual revenue or number of passengers. But if we talk only about the number of airplanes (Fleet Size), then America’s ‘United Airlines’ seems to be standing at the forefront in the world.
According to statistics, United Airlines’ fleet consists of approximately 1,050 to 1,055 jets. Their fleet is full of narrow-body aircraft from Boeing and Airbus. Also, they have modern and huge aircraft like Boeing 737 MAX series and 787 Dreamliner for long distance flights. That means, this company has the maximum number of planes flying in the sky.
American Airlines at number two
Standing just behind United is ‘American Airlines’. This year this airline has achieved a big milestone. The number of airplanes in their fleet has crossed the magical figure of 1000 and has reached 1002.
Interestingly, even though it is second in number of ships, it is considered to be the largest airline in the world in terms of number of passengers and daily flights. The history of American Airlines is also very old, which started about 99 years ago in 1926. This company has been maintaining its dominance in the aviation industry for almost a century.
Where is India’s Indigo in the race for top-10?
Now the question arises that where does our domestic airline Indigo stand among these giants of the world? Indigo has been ranked 8th in the top-10 list made on the basis of number of ships. Indigo currently has 417 aircraft.
World’s top airlines (by fleet size):
- United Airlines (US): 1050–1055 aircraft
- American Airlines (US): 1002 aircraft
- Delta Airlines (US): 986 aircraft
- Southwest Airlines (US): 810-820 aircraft
- China Eastern Airlines (China): 738 aircraft
- China Southern Airlines (China): 704 aircraft
- Air China (China): 522 aircraft
- IndiGo (India): 417 aircraft
- Turkish Airlines (Turkiye): 356 aircraft
- easyJet (UK): 337 aircraft