American Airlines is the world’s largest airline in 2021 when measured in flights, seats for sale, and available seat miles. It has been first by all three measures since 2016. We look at its recovery, before delving into its top-15 routes and seeing what has been happening internationally.
American in 2021
The world’s largest airline has 1,851,116 two-way flights this year, according to the latest data from experts Cirium. It is ahead of Delta (1,450,520), United (1,282,043), Southwest (1,087,515), and China Eastern (735,287). China Southern, Air China, Ryanair (the original unit), IndiGo, and Alaska Airlines round out the world’s top-10 carrier list for the year.
American has 78% of its 2019 flight volume back, the same as Southwest. This contrasts with 74% for Delta and 71% for United. As always, this says nothing of passenger traffic, loads, fares, or financial performance.
It is not necessarily overly fair or insightful to examine the whole year like this, as earlier months will be far more negatively impacted than more recent months. Indeed, in November, American is at 90% of the flights it had in November 2019, ahead of Southwest (89%), United (85%), and Delta (83%).
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American’s top airports this year
With three in ten American movements, Dallas Fort Worth is very much the airline’s leading airport in 2021. It is highly dominant at the Texas hub, with an 82% share of flights. This rises to nine in ten when all oneworld members are included, Cirium schedules information reveals.
Dallas is a vast fortress hub, where one airline and its regional partners have 70%+ of an airport’s flights. Yet, American’s share has declined compared to when we examined it earlier in the year, as other…