Europe accounts for more than half of top 10 largest international airlines

Airlines in Europe account for six of the top 10 carriers when measuring airlines by international seats on offer at the start of the 2023 summer schedule.

Of these, Ryanair is by far the largest, offering nearly 3.2 million international seats for the week commencing 27-Mar-2023.

With 90 bases across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, Ryanair’s network covers 201 destinations across 35 different countries.  

Second ranked easyJet has not recovered as quickly as regional LCC rival Ryanair.

With just under 1.4 million seats on offer, capacity remains 6% down on 2019 levels.

easyJet has taken a modest approach to fleet growth and the LCC also has greater exposure to some slow to recover European domestic markets.

In comparison, Eastern European LCC Wizz Air has been among the fastest growing of European carriers since late early 2022, both in terms of fleet and network.

Seat capacity is now 77.5% above where it was at the start of the 2019 summer schedule, with more routes planned in Europe, Africa and Central Asia.

Also growing rapidly has been Turkish Airlines.

Seat capacity is 11% above the same point in 2019, and the airline operates to 217 international destinations, more than any other European airline.

Meanwhile, full service European peers have yet to fully recover, with British Airways’ international seats still down 11.4% vs 2019 and Lufthansa down a resounding 32.5%.

Both carriers are looking to build their schedules through the upcoming summer period, reactivating more of their widebody aircraft.

Outside of Europe, two Middle East sixth freedom carriers – Emirates Airline and Qatar Airways – made the top 10.

While neither airline has yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, both operate huge international networks from their hubs (Emirates with 134 routes and 148 for Qatar Airways).

Both plan to add more routes in 2023 and are well positioned to benefit from the recovery of Asia Pacific traffic and renewed intercontinental flight demand.

Two US carriers – American Airlines and United Airlines – also made the list.

Both have widely dispersed international networks.

American Airlines’ network is a little larger at 114 destinations, but 85 of these are in Latin America and the Caribbean.

United Airlines’ international network is broader. Of its 107 destinations, 55 are in Latin America, 26 in the Asia Pacific and 18 in Europe.

Largest international airlines by seats (week commencing 27-Mar-2023)

Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation & OAG

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