The big American airlines lead the Cirium ranking

Major US airlines have captured the top four spots in the 2021 World Airline Passenger Rankings, published by aviation analytics company Cirium.

American Airlines remains at the top of the list in 2021, followed by Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, demonstrating the strength of the recovery that continues in the US domestic market.

Overall, North American airlines showed 75% growth from the low point of 2020, though they still ended last year down 40% compared to 2019 traffic levels, measured in revenue per passengers per kilometer (RPKs) or revenue passenger miles (RPMs).

The ranking, drawn from the more than 600 carriers registered in Cirium's airline database, shows that global traffic ended 2021 down 57% compared to the pre-pandemic peak. In terms of passenger numbers, the total stood at 2.3 billion for the year, which is about half the volume of the 2019 peak.

Low-cost carriers continued to climb the rankings in all regions. Ryanair established itself as Europe's largest airline in fifth place, just below Southwest, and was the only European airline to break into the top 10.

The large European network airlines have been less successful in the past two years as demand for high-quality, long-haul travel remains low. Although Air France has remained in 13th place, Lufthansa has dropped in the ranking and British Airways remains outside the top 20 positions. Virgin Atlantic has also lost more than 50 seats as it also suffered from the slow recovery of long-distance and premium traffic.

Mainland China's big three airlines (China Southern, China Eastern and Air China) retained their place at the top of the rankings, although this could change following a new wave of COVID-19 lockdowns in Chinese cities as it's year

Across the Asia Pacific region, in stark contrast to the recovery in all other regions of the world, airlines experienced a further decline in traffic last year. Cathay Pacific suffered a spectacular drop, to the point of falling out of the top 100 airlines ranking altogether, in the wake of Hong Kong's aggressive zero COVID strategy. But it was not the only one. Airlines across the region in Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand also continued to decline.

In Japan, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines had lost nearly 85% of their traffic in 2020 and were still down around 75% at the end of 2021. As a result, both fell sharply in the rankings.

Jeremy Bowen, CEO of Cirium, commented: “Before the pandemic, Asia Pacific airlines had the largest share of global passenger traffic, with more than a third of the world total. In 2021, that region was overtaken by North America, thanks to the strong recovery of domestic flights in the US.

Two Gulf carriers, Emirates and Qatar Airways, maintained their position in the top 10 airlines, albeit with a smaller gap. Emirates has dropped four places and sits just ahead of an increasingly strong Qatar Airways, which has struggled to keep as much of its network as possible.

Turkish Airlines, aided by a large domestic market without cross-border travel restrictions, moved up four places in the latest ranking to 10th compared to 2019.

Cirium's ranking clearly reveals the problems facing major airlines, especially those based on a strong mix of business travel and long-haul flying. By 2021, its share of global passenger traffic had fallen by around five percentage points to 64%. This decline has been largely absorbed by low-cost carriers, which have increased their share to 26%.