The year 2022 marked the beginning of a gradual return to the numbers we were used to seeing before the Covid-19 pandemic. However, some carriers expect recovery or a return to the old ways only at the end of this year, or during 2024. In 2022, a total of more than 3 billion passengers were transported in the world. The list below shows the 20 largest carriers by number of transported passengers in 2022.
- American Airlines – 199.3 million passengers. The most popular route of this world’s largest carrier is Dallas Forth-Worth (DFW) – Los Angeles (LAX), with an average of more than 30 daily departures.
- Delta Air Lines – 171.4 million passengers. During 2022, Delta reported the highest profit in the history of the company, as much as 3.5 billion USD.
- Ryanair – 168.6 million passengers. Although it ranks third in the number of passengers, it is only 13th in revenue, which is a response to the business model of this carrier.
- United Airlines – 144.3 million passengers.
- Southwest Airlines – 126.6 million passengers.
- Lufthansa Group – 101.8 million passengers. Lufthansa stands out for the highest revenue per employee, as much as 800,000 USD.
- IAG – 94.7 million passengers. IAG is the group that owns British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Iberia Express, LEVEL and Vueling.
- IndiGo – 85.3 million passengers.
- Turkish Airlines – 71.8 million passengers.
- easyJet – 69.7 million passengers.
- Air France KLM Group – 65 million passengers.
- China Southern Airlines – 62.6 million passengers.
- LATAM – 62.5 million passengers.
- Wizz Air – 51.1 million passengers.
- Emirates – 43.6 million passengers.
- China Eastern Airlines – 42.5 million passengers.
- Alaska Airlines – 41.5 million passengers.
- Aeroflot – 40.7 million passengers. Following the introduction of sanctions against Aeroflot, there was a drop of 5 million passengers compared to the previous year.
- jetBlue – 39.6 million passengers.
- ANA – All Nippon Airways – 38.8 million passengers.
Sources: VisualCapitalist, Statista
