The World's 50 Biggest Airlines by Fleet Size (After Corona)

There are many metrics to define the world’s biggest airlines. With some of our latest rankings, we’ve analyzed the world’s airlines according to their safety performance, product quality, or capacity. Today, we take a look at the fleet size of the world’s airlines. However, contrary to many other rankings, we incorporated Corona-related reductions. Therefore, our ranking contains the most up-to-date fleet figures.

Rank 50 — 41: World’s Biggest Airlines by Fleet Size

Portugal’s TAP kicks off the list of the 50 biggest airlines by fleet size. Besides TAP, we have some airlines that operate an identical fleet size. Etihad Airways, S7, and Frontier all operate 104 aircraft. Moreover, KLM and Air New Zealand, and SpiceJet operate 112 aircraft. And finally, Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air both operate 121 aircraft. Additionally, Ethiopian Airlines represents the only African Airlines of the ranking.

TAP Air Portugal

Rank 40 — 31: World’s Biggest Airlines by Fleet Size

On the ranks 40 -31, we have some other airlines that operate the same amount of aircraft. For example, Qantas and Vueling operate 126 aircraft, whereas LATAM, GOL, and Air India operate 127 aircraft. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that airlines on rank 50 – 35 are pretty close to each other. Therefore, it is likely that some airlines have to adjust their fleet size and ranks accordingly in the aftermath of Corona.

Rank 30 — 21: World’s Biggest Airlines by Fleet Size

We are getting closer to the top 20 of the world’s biggest airlines by fleet size — and the number of aircraft increases. While Spirit Airlines (#30) operates a fleet of 153 aircraft, Aeroflot (#20) already cracks the 200-mark. Japan Airlines and WestJet again operate an identical fleet size.

Rank 20 — 11: World’s Biggest Airlines by Fleet Size

When entering the top 20, we find Europe’s “Big Three” — Air France, British Airways, and Lufthansa. With Hainan Airlines, we have the first out of four Chinese big players in the top 20. Ryanair is no longer in the top 10 and ranks 11th. Moreover, Emirates gets the title of Middle East’s biggest airline by fleet size.

Lufthansa didn’t make it into the top 10!

Rank 10 — 1: World’s Biggest Airlines by Fleet Size

And finally, here are the top 10 — dominated by American and Chinese airlines. Besides Turkish Airlines (#10) and Easyjet (#9), only airlines from China and the United States are among the biggest players. Moreover, the fleet size of the top 3 but also of the top 6 is amazing. For example, American Airlines’ fleet is bigger than the combined fleet of Lufthansa, Air France, and British Airways. On top of that, the total number of aircraft of the top six airlines is almost as big as the one of all airlines ranked 50 – 11.

American Airlines operates the most aircraft!