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Emirates and Lufthansa growing strongly this summer: World's biggest airlines rankings for August

Analysis

Lufthansa and Emirates are the fastest growing carriers of the global top ten, increasing their capacity (ASKs) by 12.4% and 8.1% year-on-year, respectively. Delta remains the world's leading carrier by this measure, followed by American Airlines and United Airlines. Combined, United-Continental is roughly 3.3% bigger than Delta by systemwide ASKs.

The world's airlines are scheduling some 4.9% more seats this August than the same month in 2010, translating into a 6.6% increase in ASKs. These are slight reductions in the increases witnessed in July.

Worldwide capacity: Aug-2010 vs Aug-2011*

Aug-2010 Aug-2011 % Change
Grand Total Flights per Week 600,243 618,896 3.1%
Grand Total Seats per Week 75,316,539 79,030,019 4.9%
Grand Total ASKs per Week 130,308,443,711
138,884,091,168
6.6%

Top 50 movers

Southwest Airlines (with a 7.0% year-on-year capacity increase) stays ahead of Air France this month as the seventh biggest carrier worldwide, while Ryanair (+11.9%) has gained two places at the expense of the slower-growing China Southern and Air Canada.

See related report: LCCs and unaligned carriers take greater share of global aviation again in August 2011

Turkish Airlines remains the fastest-growing carrier in the Top 25, with a near 27% year-on-year surge in capacity. In the extended global Top 50 list this month, Air India is the fastest growing airline (reflecting its integration with Indian Airlines in Feb-2011) followed by Saudi Arabian Airlines which is rapidly re-fleeting.

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Global Top 50 Airlines by capacity per week (ASK) - Aug-2010 vs Aug-2011*

Airline Aug-10 Aug-11 % Change World Ranking Variance
Aug-10 Aug-11
Delta Air Lines 8,169,938,414 8,293,387,110 1.5% 1 1 -
American Airlines 5,456,733,975 5,633,137,852 3.2% 2 2 -
United Airlines 4,763,797,783 4,739,765,739 -0.5% 3 3 -
Emirates 3,651,406,839 3,947,217,809 8.1% 5 4 +1
Continental Airlines 3,795,554,558 3,829,320,398 0.9% 4 5 -1
Lufthansa 3,352,751,753 3,768,737,124 12.4% 6 6 -
Southwest Airlines 3,203,873,890 3,427,473,518 7.0% 8 7 +1
Air France 3,216,942,369 3,345,273,389 4.0% 7 8 -1
British Airways 2,974,687,480 3,098,679,949 4.2% 9 9 -
US Airways 2,902,727,086 3,000,087,497 3.4% 10 10 -
Ryanair 2,293,470,161 2,566,164,727 11.9% 13 11 +2
China Southern 2,328,364,152 2,450,008,309 5.2% 11 12 -1
Cathay Pacific 2,163,667,133 2,383,754,552 10.2% 14 13 +1
Air Canada 2,310,765,583 2,364,073,463 2.3% 12 14 -2
Singapore Airlines 2,027,841,082 2,169,762,224 7.0% 15 15 -
Air China 2,000,760,821 2,124,303,379 6.2% 16 16 -
Qantas Airways 1,896,273,618 1,981,095,489 4.5% 17 17 -
KLM 1,850,286,108 1,952,296,046 5.5% 18 18 -
China Eastern Airlines 1,826,393,954 1,943,620,881 6.4% 19 19 -
Korean Air Lines 1,756,322,565 1,931,995,990 10.0% 20 20 -
All Nippon Airways 1,692,252,964 1,832,136,242 8.3% 21 21 -
Turkish Airlines 1,317,478,574 1,666,119,500 26.5% 28 22 +6
Qatar Airways 1,508,264,385 1,566,725,988 3.9% 23 23 -
Thai Airways 1,500,229,220 1,561,862,468 4.1% 24 24 -
Japan Airlines 1,533,478,243 1,561,850,709 1.9% 22 25 -3
TAM 1,428,600,698 1,535,956,636 7.5% 26 26 -
easyJet 1,416,411,155 1,466,264,174 3.5% 27 27 -
Iberia 1,429,809,787 1,425,542,663 -0.3% 25 28 -3
JetBlue Airways 1,162,519,938 1,310,634,465 12.7% 29 29 -
Aeroflot 932,591,681 1,085,139,661 16.4% 34 30 +4
Malaysia Airlines 967,116,837 1,044,737,764 8.0% 31 31 -
Air Berlin 1,100,950,185 991,087,477 -10.0% 30 32 -2
Saudi Arabian Airlines 760,832,428 986,589,042 29.7% 41 33 +8
Virgin Atlantic Airways 950,492,284 985,423,733 3.7% 32 34 -2
Alaska Airlines 937,254,981 973,792,529 3.9% 33 35 -2
Gol 908,891,466 964,778,627 6.1% 35 36 -1
Etihad Airways 871,695,238 963,074,300 10.5% 36 37 -1
Alitalia 850,902,209 927,598,595 9.0% 37 38 -1
Air India# 563,385,040 866,749,336 53.8% n/a 39 n/a
AirTran Airways 828,525,162 862,496,638 4.1% 38 40 -2
Asiana Airlines 762,798,924 826,540,976 8.4% 40 41 -1
Thomsonfly 767,395,628 793,806,868 3.4% 39 42 -3
SWISS 738,217,368 784,805,582 6.3% 42 43 -1
Lan Chile 654,608,489 779,676,532 19.1% n/a 44 n/a
China Airlines 734,789,040 775,232,920 5.5% 43 45 -2
Hainan Airlines 713,203,199 771,329,135 8.1% 44 46 -2
TAP - Air Portugal 675,133,621 724,155,556 7.3% 46 47 -1
Thomas Cook 698,577,249 707,147,010 1.2% 45 48 -3
Jet Airways 619,751,284 699,261,896 12.8% n/a 49 n/a
WestJet 635,003,183 676,880,084 6.6% n/a 50 n/a
GRAND TOTAL 91,603,719,785 97,067,552,549 6.0%

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