2.1 Airlines Around the World

Altogether there are approximately 1200 scheduled airlines in the world, of which some 300 operate on international routes. Airlines exist in many different shapes and sizes. Two of the very largest are American Airlines and United Airlines. These two airlines carry over 80 million passengers annually and operate fleets of some 600 aircraft. At the other extreme one of the smallest airlines offering scheduled services on international routes is Druk Air of Bhutan, which carries less than 10000 passengers per annum on just two British Aerospace 146 aircraft.

In terms of fleet size and passenger-kilometres flown, six of the ten largest airlines are registered in the United States (Figure 2.1). And whether it is in terms of sales revenue, passengers carried or number of employees, the list of the top 100 airlines is dominated by airlines based in North America, Western Europe and the Asia/Pacific region (Table 2.1). Beyond the top 100 there is a whole host of smaller airlines. Virtually every country in the world has its own national flag carrier and there are numerous charter airlines as well as hundreds of small regional carriers serving short haul routes.

Figure 2.1: Ten largest airlines in 1997 (Source: International Air Transport Association)