chrisruzin.net :: World’s Biggest Airlines (September 18, 2003)

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World’s Biggest Airlines

I saw this chart on the French Yahoo, and thought it was interesting to see who the world’s largest airlines are by number of passengers.

World's Largest Airlines

Bob S's gravatar Bob S United States September 21, 2003

Note that it is not simply number of passengers, but number of passengers multiplied by the number of miles each passenger is flown. That probably explains why Qantas ranks fairly high; Australia is far away from everything, so it gets a greater distance factor for most of its flights/passengers.

el guapo's gravatar el guapo United States October 5, 2003

we rule.

werner kreisoe's gravatar werner kreisoe Denmark October 26, 2003

In the list of the biggest airlines where is aeroflot it is supposed to be the biggest of the world?

Chris's gravatar Chris United States October 26, 2003

I don’t know where it is in the list. The chart that I show above ranks them by the number of passengers multiplied by the number of miles they fly. So if Aeroflot has a lot of planes but not many passengers, or those passengers don’t fly a lot of miles, then they won’t rank high.

Aminne's gravatar Aminne United States July 2, 2004

Where’s Air Canada?! We’re supposed to be number 11 in the world but the chart jumps straight to 15! I guess we’re too quiet in the world arena so they tend to forget we exist.

Sanderson's gravatar Sanderson United Kingdom March 2, 2005

KLM is the best airline in the world even tough i live in LONDON

niels's gravatar niels Netherlands May 9, 2005

Hey, one of the smalles countries in the world with still one of the biggest airlines. to bad we sold KLM to those ***** French ;-(

Frank Miller's gravatar Frank Miller United States July 29, 2005

If this chart were in English, too, it would be a lot easier for the world…

m.k's gravatar m.k United Kingdom August 21, 2005

all of them are bad except klm

C.L's gravatar C.L Canada September 26, 2005

When ever some1 can re place this one with a better one cause Air Canada is misssing + (

ayman mohamed ali noman's gravatar ayman mohamed ali noman United States November 28, 2005

i wish royal jordanian get into the list

Mash's gravatar Mash India January 2, 2006

Please do send some photos of all the international airlines allong with some information about the particular airline.

nick's gravatar nick United States February 17, 2006

northwest is bout to get way lower!

Beat's gravatar Beat Germany February 19, 2006

I thing that Hapagfly must come in the list….....

saul's gravatar saul Mexico March 8, 2006

the north american airlines only are interested in the money and they forget the service

best airlines klm, quantas,lufthansa, mexicana, emirates, and air canada

Chris's gravatar Chris United States March 8, 2006

Best airline service: KLM, Qantas, Lufthansa? Maybe if you’re in Business or better, but their service was just like everyone else’s. In fact, one of the worst flights I’ve been on, for service, was a Lufthansa flight. The meal they served was horrid. The person next to me also thought it was horrible. Luckily it was a shorter flight, so I just snacked on other things.

On a KLM flight, we were delayed almost two hours on the tarmac in Amsterdam because of a broken down vehicle blocking our gate. Or that’s what they told us the problem was. It was miserable on the plane after that long. KLM didn’t give anyone vouchers or any kind of compensation. That’s great service!

I haven’t flown Mexicana, Emirates or Air Canada, but I’ve heard Emirates is very nice.

Pis's gravatar Pis Australia March 9, 2006

what about Singapore Airlines? i thought they were even bigger then Qantas

Pis's gravatar Pis Australia March 9, 2006

i think qantas sucks!
they should have lower price, and better services

lunthasa is gay

dilsaid's gravatar dilsaid Australia April 13, 2006

QF is by far the best here. All the American airlines are big because they can’t go bankrupt (government protection, what a joke!), their service though, it sucks! Emirates tops for service, lufthansa tops for rediculious accents, and KLM tops for gaudy paint schemes.

I guess the US airlines take the cake when it comes to pilots (who don’t mind a few cocktails, keepin’ the dream alive!), followed by the brits.

Chris's gravatar Chris United States April 13, 2006

Are you being serious? American airlines can go bankrupt. Ask Continental and TWA. The US government used to keep airlines from going under, but that was stopped when the United States Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 was passed.

The US airlines are also big because they fly a hell of a lot of people, and many of those people fly a lot of miles. That’s why they’re at the top.

Sin's gravatar Sin Canada April 18, 2006

Considering I work in airlines, book frickin tickets all day and stare at freakin airport codes till my eyes bleed, let me tell you…they all suck. I get complainst out of my arse bout air canadas trashy baggage handling, US overbooking so much passengers are stuck at airport for 2 days…the one to get the least amount of complaints is KLM, gaudy paint maybe but they know they’re service better than others

Chris's gravatar Chris United States April 18, 2006

I do not envy you working with the airline industry. I can only imagine what kind of diatribes you have to hear, especially considering how lame overpriced airline service is in general.

I wish my experience with KLM had been better, but I still think their service is just as bad, if not worse, than most of the other airlines I’ve flown.

Out of the ones I’ve flown, one of the best was Hawaiian airlines. Maybe it was because I like Hawaii or something, but the service was good, I never had luggage problems with them and they were always on time. It also helps that you weren’t stuck on their plane for seemingly endless hours too.

Sin's gravatar Sin Canada April 18, 2006

Well that helps greatly. I work immediatly for Air Canada which, I might ad, is the crappiest airline you can get. I mean, I think airlines like Jetblue outbeat Air Canada. You can’t reach anyone but tech support or reservations and have the time people get the call center in India, who by the way doesn’t know Jack. And then India calls here giving me a damn headache until you are transfered to me AND THEN i have the pleasure of telling you. “Sorry, I can’t help you, I’m a sub agent with no authorization and all other numbers are automated or India.” Now that’s calls service!

SpukGeist's gravatar SpukGeist United States April 18, 2006

I agree with this chart to a point

Lisa Meyer's gravatar Lisa Meyer Thailand April 18, 2006

Lufthansa is one of the best airlines in the whole world!!! I think it should be higher up! Only because the americans have a bigger country it doesnt mean that they are better!!!!!
Lufthansa IS THE BEST!!!

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