It’s amazing what a deep dive on airline data can uncover.

Want to know which airline has the world’s largest frequent flyer program? It’s almost certainly Delta SkyMiles, with 130 million members.

Speaking of big airlines, Ryanair Group has capitalized on its 40 years of low-cost air travel to become the biggest LCC, with 183.7+ million passengers.

Low-cost carriers carried 29.8% of global traffic in 2024 – but perhaps not surprisingly given their business model, their cut-rate fares only generated 17.3% of global revenue.

American Airlines is pegged as the largest employer among the 120 airlines which

disclose total employment. The carrier wrapped up 2023 with 132,100 employees.

And how about this? Worldwide, airlines brought in US$918 billion in revenue in 2023. That’s up more than 32% year over year. And so far it’s looking like the global airline industry will surpass the $1 trillion revenue mark for 2024.

All this intel comes from the latest edition of The Big Book of Airline Data, compiled by the U.S.-based IdeaWorksCompany.

Jay Sorensen, President of IdeaWorksCompany, said The Big Book, now in its fifth edition and released annually, relies on a number of sources and methods to determine the results for each company, from releases and industry articles, to corporate financial documents.

This year’s Big Book is 105 pages and includes passenger traffic, revenue, employment and frequent flyer membership data for 239 carriers around the world. The full report can be downloaded for free at ideaworkscompany.com/reports/.

“Far lower than pre-pandemic times”

Canada and U.S. airlines remain the world’s largest revenue producers with a 29.4% share of global airline revenue.

Travelweek asked Sorensen about reports of sky-high airfares since the pandemic. Will passengers (and travel advisors) be experiencing sticker shock in 2025?

Sorensen cited an IATA chart showing global one-way fares, adjusted for inflation to 2024 values, from 2015 through 2024. In 2015, the average global one-way fare was pegged at US$269.98, dropping steadily down year by year to US$141.50 in 2021, before rebounding a bit and staying steady at US$153.40 in 2022, US$162.17 in 2023 and $157.78 in 2024. “I wouldn’t call the most recent fares sky high, in fact, they are far lower than pre-pandemic times,” said Sorensen.

Travelweek also asked Sorensen for his outlook for air travel demand next year.

“I don’t see 2025 as a particularly strong year for travel demand,” he said. “I have a sense the ‘Roaring 20s’ … have come to a close, and that demand will adjust to traditional levels.”

The other factor that will impact 2025 airline travel is improved aircraft availability “as the industry works it way through the Pratt & Whitney engine debacle,” he added. Issues with the manufacturer’s GTF engine impacted more than 40 airlines around the world.

Noting that Travelweek’s readers are in the Canadian travel industry, we also asked Sorensen about Canada’s airlines, and airline competition in Canada, citing the 2024 demise of LCC Lynx Air and also Canada Jetlines.

“Canada is a so-very-cyclical market. It seems to range from boom to bust, either from the perspective of airlines or travellers,” he said. “Major airlines – especially in the U.S. – have learned how to deploy basic economy fares to soak up traffic that once was carried by LCCs. They’ve done this because of the capacity provided by a ‘forever loss’ of a portion of business traffic since the pandemic. Major carriers have the good fortune of a mix of revenue produced by international, domestic and premium categories, along with big revenue from co-branded credit card portfolios. By comparison, LCCs are challenged in all these areas.”

This article appears in the Nov. 7, 2024 edition of Travelweek. To read more, click here.