February 11 - The four largest airlines in the world by seats being flown right now are all U.S. carriers. Somewhat surprising to me, the fifth-largest airline by seat capacity is Indian discounter IndiGo. There are 3 Chinese airlines in the top 10 largest, but they’ve dropped down to spots 6-8 as they pull back domestic capacity.

 

Delta is flying more seats than any other airline in the world, but that doesn’t mean it’s flying more passengers since it continues blocking most middle seats. And they’re only a few seats ahead of American which is trying to fill its planes.

 

Southwest is traditionally the largest domestic airline. It’s no surprise then that United, which is so heavily dependent on international during normal times, is flying fewer seats than Southwest. But though Southwest was heavily aggressive early in the pandemic they’ve been more cautious. Turning back the clock six months, if you had told me that world borders would still be closed, I’d have bet Southwest Airlines would be the largest airline in the U.S. and the world. But they’re not (they’re number three).

 

Here are the current top 10 and how their capacity compares to last week and a year ago:

 

 

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