Europe airline groups 2018 ranking: Lufthansa group still at the top

In 2018 Lufthansa Group retained the title of Europe's largest airline group by passenger numbers, with a 10.0% increase to 142 million passengers. Ryanair remained in second place among airline groups and remained the biggest individual airline brand in Europe, growing by 8.0% to 139 million passengers.

Jet2.com entered the ranking at number 19, pushing Air Europa into 20th and knocking Flybe out of the top 20 altogether. The UK LCC grew traffic by 32.7%, to 12.2 million passengers, and took the title of fastest growing among the top 20 groups.

IAG remained third, growing by 7.7% to 112.9 million passengers. Air France-KLM became only the fourth European airline group with more than 100 million passengers, growing by 2.8% to 101 million. The next four groups - easyJet (92 million passengers, up 13%), Turkish Airlines (75 million, up 9.5%), Aeroflot Group (56 million, up 11%) and Norwegian (37 million, up 12.7%) - also held their 2017 positions.

Wizz Air (with the second fastest growth, up by 19.6% to 34 million) jumped ahead of SAS (up 1.2%, to 30 million) into ninth place. The Scandinavian airline is in danger of falling out of the top 10, carrying just 100,000 passengers more than 11th placed Pegasus Airlines, which grew by 7.7%.

This report ranks Europe's top 20 airline groups by passenger numbers in 2018 and also includes a ranking of the top 20 individual airline brands.