Airlines
About Airlines
The world's major airlines, region by region: the alliance anchors that built the global networks, the Gulf super-connectors that redrew them, and the low-cost giants that sit outside the system entirely (Ryanair alone carries more passengers than any airline outside the United States). Each carrier page covers the fleet and its orders, the hubs and where the network reaches, who owns the airline and where its strategy is heading.
The landscape splits along familiar lines: in North America three network majors and Southwest divide the largest market in the world; Europe pairs three legacy groups against the continent's low-cost leaders; the Middle East is the super-connector heartland; and Asia-Pacific spans the premium benchmarks of Singapore and Tokyo, the merged Korean giant and the fastest-growing markets on Earth.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the measure. American Airlines leads by fleet size with some 980 mainline aircraft, Delta Air Lines by revenue and profit, Ryanair carries the most passengers in Europe (208.4 million in its 2026 fiscal year), and Emirates is the largest international carrier by scheduled capacity.
Star Alliance is anchored by United, Lufthansa, Air Canada, ANA, Singapore Airlines and Turkish Airlines; oneworld by American, British Airways, Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas; SkyTeam by Delta, Air France, Korean Air and Saudia. Emirates, Etihad, flydubai, Ryanair and Southwest operate outside the alliances.
A carrier whose business is connecting other regions over its own hub rather than serving its home market: Emirates over Dubai (DXB), Qatar Airways over Doha (DOH) and Turkish Airlines over Istanbul (IST) are the defining examples, each built on geography that puts most of the world within one stop.