World Airline Rankings — The Most Comprehensive Collection
With this blog post, we put together some of the most essential airline rankings. We went through hundreds of sources, collected data, and crunched numbers — everything with the ultimate goal to create the world’s most comprehensive airline ranking source. In fact, we will update this post regularly with the latest data and additional rankings — however, for the moment, here are the airline rankings you will find on this blog:
- World’s Top 50 Biggest Airlines By Fleet Size
- World’s Top 15 Biggest Airlines By Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK)
- Top 10 World’s Best Airlines
- Top 15 World’s Safest Airlines
- Top 20 World’s Most Punctual Airline In 2019
- Top 5 Most Reliable Airlines
- Top 30 Airlines on Instagram
World’s Top 50 Biggest Airlines By Fleet Size
This airline ranking provides the latest fleet size figures of the world’s 50 biggest airlines.
| Rank | Airline | Country | Fleet Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | TAP | Portugal | 100 |
| 47 | Etihad Airways | United Arab Emirates | 104 |
| 47 | S7 Airlines | Russia | 104 |
| 47 | Frontier Airlines | United States | 104 |
| 46 | Vietnam Airlines | Vietnam | 105 |
| 43 | KLM | Netherlands | 112 |
| 43 | Air New Zealand | New Zealand | 112 |
| 43 | SpiceJet | India | 112 |
| 41 | Ethiopian Airlines | Ethiopia | 121 |
| 41 | Lion Air | Indonesia | 121 |
| 40 | Wizz Air | Hungary | 122 |
| 38 | Qantas | Australia | 126 |
| 38 | Vueling | Spain | 126 |
| 35 | LATAM | Chile | 127 |
| 35 | GOL | Brazil | 127 |
| 35 | Air India | India | 127 |
| 34 | Singapore Airlines | Singapore | 134 |
| 33 | SAS Scandinavian Airlines | Sweden | 137 |
| 32 | Garuda Indonesia | Indonesia | 142 |
| 31 | Azul | Brazil | 152 |
| 30 | Spirit Airlines | United States | 153 |
| 29 | Air Canada | Canada | 163 |
| 28 | Saudia | Saudi Arabia | 165 |
| 27 | Korean Air | South Korea | 166 |
| 25 | Japan Airlines | Japan | 169 |
| 25 | WestJet | Canada | 169 |
| 24 | Cathay Pacific | China | 171 |
| 23 | Avianca | Colombia | 176 |
| 22 | Shenzhen Airlines | China | 194 |
| 21 | Aeroflot | Russia | 202 |
| 20 | Air France | France | 215 |
| 19 | Hainan Airlines | China | 225 |
| 18 | All Nippon Airlines | Japan | 227 |
| 17 | Qatar Airways | Qatar | 238 |
| 16 | IndiGo | India | 250 |
| 15 | British Airways | United Kingdom | 254 |
| 14 | Lufthansa | Germany | 267 |
| 13 | Emirates | United Arab Emirates | 268 |
| 12 | JetBlue | United States | 270 |
| 11 | Ryanair | Ireland | 273 |
| 10 | Turkish Airlines | Turkey | 312 |
| 9 | easyjet | United Kingdom | 323 |
| 8 | Alaska Airlines | United States | 330 |
| 7 | Air China | China | 444 |
| 6 | China Eastern Airlines | China | 581 |
| 5 | China Southern Airlines | China | 626 |
| 4 | Southwest Airlines | United States | 734 |
| 3 | Delta Air Lines | United States | 781 |
| 2 | United Airlines | United States | 834 |
| 1 | American Airlines | United States | 881 |
World’s Top 15 Biggest Airlines By Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK)
Revenue passenger kilometers are a commonly used figure to assess the size of an airline. That’s why we chose this metric to rank the world’s biggest airlines. To assess the current airlines’ size, we analyzed RPK’s of November 2020, December 2020, and January 2021. We will certainly keep updating the post as soon as new figures are available.
Important: Due to COVID-19, this list is highly volatile and can (massively) change monthly. We will keep updating the list regularly!
| Rank | Airline | Country | Average RPK Nov ’20 – Jan ’21 (billion) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China Southern | China | 13.5 |
| 2 | China Eastern | China | 12.4 |
| 3 | American Airlines | United States | 10.3 |
| 4 | Air China | China | 9.7 |
| 5 | United Airlines | United States | 9.6 |
| 6 | Delta Air Lines | United States | 9.5 |
| 7 | Southwest | United States | 6.8 |
| 8 | Air France / KLM | France | 6.6 |
| 9 | Hainan Airlines | China | 6.0 |
| 10 | Aeroflot | Russia | 4.5 |
| 11 | International Airline Group | United Kingdom | 4.3 |
| 12 | Emirates | U.A.E | 4.1 |
| 13 | Turkish Airlines | Turkey | 3.9 |
| 14 | Lufthansa Group | Germany | 3.6 |
| 15 | LATAM | Chile | 3.6 |
Top 10 World’s Best Airlines
When ranking the airlines, we considered three aspects that —from our point of view— contributes to the ultimate customer experience:
- On-time performance: Arriving on time at your destination is one of the core quality factors. That’s why we looked at the on-time performance of airlines.
- Service Quality: Based on surveys, this aspect includes everything you experience on-board: From meals to in-flight entertainment, or crew friendliness.
- Customer/Claim Support: Sometimes problems occur: Flights are delayed or baggage got lost. But there’s nothing more annoying than not finding any help in such cases. Therefore, we assessed the quality of airlines’ customer support in terms of handling problems and claims.
The shown results are based on data from airhelp.com.
| Rank | Airline | Country | Quality Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qatar Airways | Qatar | 8.23 |
| 2 | American Airlines | United States | 8.07 |
| 3 | Aeromexico | Mexico | 8.07 |
| 4 | SAS | Sweden | 8.07 |
| 5 | Qantas | Australia | 8.04 |
| 6 | LATAM | Chile | 8.01 |
| 7 | WestJet | Canada | 7.96 |
| 8 | Luxair | Luxembourg | 7.90 |
| 9 | Austrian Airlines | Austria | 7.90 |
| 10 | Emirates | U.A.E | 7.80 |
Top 15 World’s Safest Airlines
There are various ways on how to assess an airline’s safety quality. Moreover, depending on the method and data, the results might look slightly different. Our ranking is mainly based on data from JACDEC — Center for Aviation Safety Information. JACDEC are accepted airline safety experts and maintain a sophisticated calculation method. Their risk index contains factors, such as accident history, incident history, number of flights, transported passengers, environmental facts, or airline operational risk factors (IOSA, fleet age, route profile, etc.).
| Rank | Airline | Country | Risk Index |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emirates | U.A.E | 95.5% |
| 2 | Etihad Airways | U.A.E | 95.2% |
| 3 | Air Europa | Spain | 94.7% |
| 4 | Finnair | Finland | 94.7% |
| 5 | Scoot Tigerair | Singapore | 93.9% |
| 6 | Norwegian | Norway | 93.3% |
| 7 | Transavia | Netherlands | 92.5% |
| 8 | Jetstar | Australia | 92.2% |
| 9 | EVA Air | Taiwan | 92.2% |
| 10 | Vueling | Spain | 92.1 |
| 11 | JetBlue | United States | 92% |
| 12 | Virgin Atlantic | United Kingdom | 92% |
| 13 | KLM | Netherlands | 92% |
| 14 | easyjet | United Kingdom | 91.7% |
| 15 | Cathay Pacific | China | 91.7% |
Top 20 World’s Most Punctual Airline In 2019
For many years, Hawaiian Airlines was the king of on-time performance and led the airlines’ punctuality list. However, that picture changed in 2019, and the U.S. carrier is no longer among the Top-3 most punctual airlines. Before we dig into the details, you may ask why we take a look at 2019’s number? That’s pretty easy: Due to the pandemic 2020 with its grounded aircraft, canceled routes, and closed airspace does simply not provide any value when looking at the on-time performance. And frankly speaking: Although punctuality is important, airlines had to tackle other challenges in 2020.
| Rank | Airline | Country | Punctuality (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Garuda Indonesia | Indonesia | 95.01 |
| 2 | Copa Airlines | Panama | 92.01 |
| 3 | Skymark Airlines | Japan | 90.12 |
| 4 | Hawaiian Airlines | United States | 87.4 |
| 5 | LATAM | Chile | 86.41 |
| 6 | Aeroflot | Russia | 86.3 |
| 7 | ANA | Japan | 85.92 |
| 8 | Jetstar Asia | Singapore | 85.48 |
| 9 | Singapore Airlines | Singapore | 85.32 |
| 10 | Thai AirAsia | Thailand | 84.49 |
| 11 | Iberia | Spain | 84.06 |
| 12 | S7 Airlines | Russia | 83.88 |
| 13 | airBaltic | Latvia | 83.63 |
| 14 | Delta Air Lines | United States | 85.36 |
| 15 | Japan Airlines | Japan | 83.44 |
| 16 | Sky Airline | Chile | 83.42 |
| 17 | Etihad Airways | U.A.E | 83.40 |
| 18 | Qantas | Australia | 82.96 |
| 19 | Jet2 | United Kingdom | 82.69 |
| 20 | Indonesia AirAsia | Indonesia | 82.41 |
Top 5 Most Reliable Airlines
The reliability score averages the flight cancellation rate between a defined period and a score for airline flexibility around customer rebooking.
| Rank | Airline | Country | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qatar Airways | Qatar | 4.2 |
| 2 | KLM | Netherlands | 4.1 |
| 3 | Turkish Airlines | Turkey | 4.1 |
| 4 | Lufthansa | Germany | 3.9 |
| 5 | British Airways | United Kingdom | 3.8 |
Top 30 Airlines on Instagram
| Rank | Airline | Follower | Rank Change | Follower Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emirates | 5.59M | — | +43,000 |
| 2 | Qatar Airways | 3.48M | — | +85,000 |
| 3 | Turkish Airlines | 1.85M | — | +22,000 |
| 4 | LATAM | 1.82M | — | +18,000 |
| 5 | Etihad Airways | 1.72M | — | +73,285 |
| 6 | Lufthansa | 1.41M | — | +12,000 |
| 7 | KLM | 1.35M | — | +9,800 |
| 8 | Singapore Airlines | 1.29 | — | 32,700 |
| 9 | Garuda Indonesia | 1.18M | — | +8,400 |
| 10 | Air France | 1,10M | — | +750 |
| 11 | American Airlines | 1.08M | +1 | +3,600 |
| 12 | Delta Air Lines | 1.08M | -1 | +2,600 |
| 13 | British Airways | 1.05M | — | +3,000 |
| 14 | Qantas | 946,000 | +1 | -1,000 |
| 15 | GOL | 923,000 | +1 | +2,000 |
| 16 | AirAsia | 912,000 | -2 | -41,000 |
| 17 | Air Canada | 907,000 | — | +1,000 |
| 18 | Azul | 858,000 | — | +2,000 |
| 19 | Swiss International | 806,000 | — | +/- 0 |
| 20 | United Airlines | 804,000 | — | +4,000 |
| 21 | Southwest Airlines | 756,000 | — | +1,000 |
| 22 | Ryanair | 740,000 | — | +3,000 |
| 23 | Thai Airways | 676,000 | — | -1,000 |
| 24 | Aeroflot | 651,000 | — | +1,000 |
| 25 | Cathay Pacific | 610,000 | — | -36,000 |
| 26 | Virgin Atlantic | 557,000 | — | +1,000 |
| 27 | Aerolineas Argentina | 553,000 | — | +2,000 |
| 28 | All Nippon Airlines | 549,000 | — | +1,000 |
| 29 | TAP | 544,000 | — | +5,000 |
| 30 | Malaysia Airlines | 533,000 | — | +1,000 |
Top 30 Airlines on Facebook
| Rank | Airline | Country | Region | Facebook Page Likes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | All Nippon Airlines | Japan | Asia | 2,099,000 |
| 29 | Malaysia Airlines | Malaysia | Asia | 2,466,000 |
| 28 | American Airlines | United States | North America | 2,587,000 |
| 27 | Avianca | Colombia | South America | 2,981,000 |
| 26 | Thai Airways | Thailand | Asia | 3,051,000 |
| 25 | Wizz Air | Hungary | Europe | 3,268,000 |
| 24 | British Airways | United Kingdom | Europe | 3,274,000 |
| 23 | Delta Air Lines | United States | North America | 3,281,000 |
| 22 | Japan Airlines | Japan | Asia | 3,422,000 |
| 21 | GOL | Brazil | South America | 3,593,000 |
| 20 | Philippine Airlines | Philippines | Asia | 3,808,000 |
| 19 | Lufthansa | Germany | Europe | 3,930,000 |
| 18 | Singapore Airlines | Singapore | Asia | 4,037,000 |
| 17 | Azul | Brazil | South America | 4,097,000 |
| 16 | China Eastern Airlines | China | Asia | 4,374,000 |
| 15 | Volaris | Mexico | Central America | 4,460,000 |
| 14 | Etihad | United Arab Emirates | Middle East | 4,614,000 |
| 13 | Ryanair | Ireland | Europe | 4,999,000 |
| 12 | Cebu Pacific | Philippines | Asia | 5,405,000 |
| 11 | Vietjet | Vietnam | Asia | 5,501,000 |
| 10 | Southwest Airlines | United States | North America | 6,146,000 |
| 9 | Saudia | Saudi Arabia | Middle East | 6,525,000 |
| 8 | Air France | France | Europe | 7,305,000 |
| 7 | China Southern Airlines | China | Asia | 10,224,000 |
| 6 | Turkish Airlines | Turkey | Europe | 10,676,000 |
| 5 | Emirates | United Arab Emirates | Middle East | 10,732,000 |
| 4 | AirAsia | Malaysia | Asia | 12,572,000 |
| 3 | LATAM | Chile | South America | 13,455,000 |
| 2 | KLM | Netherlands | Europe | 14,198,000 |
| 1 | Qatar Airways | Qatar | Middle East | 22,411,000 |
