Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair and Dallas, Texas-based Southwest Airlines carried the most international and domestic passengers respectively in 2015, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). IATA's 60th annual World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) guide -- on the largest airlines in the world -- covers areas including:
- Demand for air transport: traffic operations, performance of major route areas, passenger and freight forecasts, world airport rankings;
- Supply of air transport: capacity in terms of number of seats, number of scheduled flights by aircraft type;
- Performance of the airline industry: safety statistics, financial results, fuel performance; and
- A compilation of statistics on the top 100 airlines and alliances.
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Among the world’s largest domestic markets, India had the fastest domestic passenger growth in 2015. With annual growth of 18.8 percent (in a market of 80 million domestic passengers), India’s performance surpassed that of Russia (11.9 percent growth, in a market of 47 million domestic passengers), China (9.7 percent growth, in a market of 394 million domestic passengers) and the United States (5.4 percent growth, in a market of 708 million domestic passengers).
“Last year airlines safely carried 3.6 billion passengers—the equivalent of 48% of the Earth’s population—and transported 52.2 million tonnes of cargo worth around $6 trillion.
In doing so, we supported some $2.7 trillion in economic activity and 63 million jobs,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO in a statement.
System-wide, airlines carried 3.6 billion passengers on scheduled services in 2015, an increase of 7.2 percent over 2014, representing an additional 240 million air trips.
Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region once again carried the largest number of passengers.
The top five airlines ranked by total scheduled passengers carried (domestic and international) were:
1. American Airlines (146.5 million)
2. Southwest Airlines (144.6 million)
3. Delta Air Lines (138.8 million)
4. China Southern Airlines (109.3 million)
5. Ryanair (101.4 million)
The top five international/regional passenger airport-pairs were all within the Asia-Pacific region:
1. Hong Kong-Taipei (5.1 million, up 2.1% from 2014)
2. Jakarta-Singapore (3.4 million, down 2.6%)
3. Bangkok Suvarnabhumi-Hong Kong (3 million, increase of 29.2%)
4. Kuala Lumpur–Singapore (2.7 million, up 13%)
5. Hong Kong-Singapore (2.7 million, down 3.2%)
The top five domestic passenger airport-pairs were also all in the Asia-Pacific region:
1. Jeju-Seoul Gimpo (11.1 million, up 7.1% over 2014)
2. Sapporo-Tokyo Haneda (7.8 million, up 1.3%)
3. Fukuoka-Tokyo Haneda (7.6 million, a decrease of 7.4% from 2014)
4. Melbourne Tullamarine-Sydney (7.2 million, down 2.2%)
5. Beijing Capital-Shanghai Hongqiao (6.1 million, up 6.1% from 2014)
Source : TripSavvy.com
