Being the avid data collector I am, I collected all the aircraft info for every airline with 5000+ seats. Data courtesy of Planespotters.net. I have the results here sorted by highest capacity, I can email the entire spreadsheet for those interested if its easier to read. This just gives a different perspective of an airline size. If every airline listed flew every active aircraft at the same time, there would be 2,403,593 seats in the air. Fleet data current as of 4/30/12.

Rank IATA ICAO Airline Name Base Country Capacity Fleet Size Alliance PPA
1 SA)">DL DAL Delta Air Lines United States 130018 721 SK 180
2 SA)">UA UAL United Airlines United States 125689 701 ST 179
3 SA)">AA AAL American Airlines United States 105137 619 SA)">OW 170
4 SA)">WN SWA Southwest Airlines United States 77357 566 137
5 LH DLH Lufthansa Germany 61839 291 ST 213
6 CZ CSN China Southern China 60648 364 SK 167
7 AF AFR Air France France 57053 251 SK 227
8 EK UAE Emirates United Arab Emirates 56426 163 346
9 FR RYR Ryanair Ireland 55566 294 189
10 US AWE US Airways United States 51925 340 ST 153
11 CA CCA Air China China 51380 276 ST 186
12 BA BAW British Airways United Kingdom 49647 231 SA)">OW 215
13 MU CES China Eastern AirlinesChina 47867 291 SK 164
14 NH ANA All Nippon Airways Japan 44216 182 ST 243
15 CX CPA Cathay Pacific Hong Kong 35067 109 SA)">OW 322
16 QF QFA Qantas Airlines Australia 34204 141 SA)">OW 243
17 JL JAL Japan Airlines Japan 32258 125 SA)">OW 258
18 AC ACA Air Canada Canada 31052 199 ST 156
19 TK THY Turkish Airlines Turkey 30913 161 ST 192
20 KE KAL Korean Air Lines South Korea 30630 120 SA)">OW 255
21 SQ SIA Singapore Airlines Singapore 30344 100 ST 303
22 SA)">U2 EZY easyJet United Kingdom 29976 186 161
23 AM-Transportes Aereos Meridionais (Brazil)">JJ TAM TAM Brazil 28669 157 ST 183
24 KL KLM KLM Airlines Netherlands 27313 112 SK 244
25 TG THA Thai Airways Thailand 26980 90 ST 300
26 SV SVA Saudi Arabian Airlines Saudi Arabia 25549 115 222
27 AB BER Air Berlin Germany 25174 140 SA)">OW 180
28 QR QTR Qatar Airways Qatar 23429 101 232
29 SA)">B6 JBU jetBlue Airways United States 23250 172 135
30 MH MSA)">AS Malaysia Airlines Malaysia 22151 103 215
31 IB IBE Iberia Spain 21824 102 SA)">OW 214
32 AZ AZA Alitalia Italy 21540 126 SK 171
33 SK SSA)">AS Scandinavian Airlines Multi-National 21476 121 ST 177
34 SA)">EV BTA ExpressJet Airlines United States 21329 409 52
35 SU ASA)">FL Aeroflot Russia 20252 117 SK 173
36 AI AIC Air India India 19897 101 197
37 UN TSO Transaero Russia 19723 78 253
38 G3 GLO GOL Brazil 18041 105 172
39 ZH CSZ Shenzhen Airlines China 17636 110 160
40 SA)">AS ASA Alaska Airlines United States 17480 118 148
41 SA)">FL TRS AirTran Airways United States 17420 140 124
42 HU CHH Hainan Airlines China 17401 116 150
43 LA LAN LAN Chile Chile 16808 94 SA)">OW 179
44 JT LNI Lion Airlines Indonesia 16677 77 217
45 DJ VOZ Virgin Australia Australia 16590 95 175
46 SA)">OO SKW SkyWest Airlines United States 15340 268 57
47 9W JAI Jet Airways India 15322 100 153
48 CI CAL China Airlines Taiwan 15159 51 SK 297
49 OZ AAR Asiana Airlines South Korea 15126 68 ST 222
50 EY ETD Etihad Airways United Arab Emirates 15006 60 250
51 GA GIA Garuda Indonesia Indonesia 14650 83 177
52 LX SWR Swiss Switzerland 14041 85 ST 165
53 WS WJA WestJet Airlines Canada 13587 98 139
54 MF CXA Xiamen Airlines China 13236 81 163
55 VN HVN Vietnam Airlines Vietnam 13120 70 SK 187
56 JQ JST Jetstar Airways Australia 12982 64 203
57 BY TOM Thomson Airways United Kingdom 12590 57 221
58 VS VIR Virgin Atlantic United Kingdom 12444 38 327
59 SA)">MQ EGF American Eagle United States 12278 245 SA)">OW 50
60 BR EVA EVA Airways Taiwan 11419 41 279
61 DY NAX Norwegian Air Shuttle Norway 11372 64 178
62 AY FIN Finnair Finland 11211 70 SA)">OW 160
63 FM CSH Shanghai Airlines China 11061 64 173
64 NZ ANZ Air New Zealand New Zealand 10525 49 ST 215
65 MS MSR Egyptair Egypt 10504 56 188
66 3U CSC Sichuan Airlines China 10319 64 161
67 AK AXM AirAsia Malaysia 10260 57 180
68 SA SAA South African Airways South Africa 10227 50 ST 205
69 6E IGO Indigo India 10080 56 180
70 TP TAP TAP Air Portugal Portugal 9790 55 ST 178
71 VY VLG Vueling Spain 9681 54 179
72 UT UTA UTAir Russia 9443 93 102
73 IR IRA Iran Air Iran 9297 47 198
74 PK PIA Pakistan Int'l Airlines Pakistan 9043 39 232
75 EI EIN Aer Lingus Ireland 8934 46 194
76 PR PAL Philippine Airlines Philippines 8868 37 240
77 G4 AAY Allegiant Air United States 8688 60 145
78 CM CMP Copa Airlines Panama 8599 64 134
79 DE CFG Condor Germany 8503 36 236
80 AV AVA Avianca Airlines Colombia 8486 63 135
81 F9 FFT Frontier Airlines United States 8472 60 141
82 MT TCX Thomas Cook Airlines United Kingdom 8409 35 240
83 SC CDG Shandong Airlines China 8340 57 146
84 AT RAM Royal Air Maroc Morocco 8251 51 162
85 LY ELY El Al Israel 8176 36 227
86 AM AMX AeroMexico Mexico 8162 54 SK 151
87 HA HAL Hawaiian Airlines United States 8130 39 208
88 UX AEA Air Europa Spain 8051 41 SK 196
89 W5 IRM Mahan Airlines Iran 8022 33 243
90 KA HAD Dragonair Hong Kong 7879 35 225
91 ET ETH Ethopian Airlines Ethopia 7674 43 ST 178
92 OS AUA Austrian Airlines Austria 7671 40 ST 192
93 ZB MON Monarch Airlines United Kingdom 7521 32 235
94 9E FLG Pinnacle Airlines United States 7366 139 53
95 QK JZA Air Canada Jazz Canada 7220 140 ST 52
96 AR ARG Aerolineas Argentinas Argentina 7205 42 172
97 VX VRD Virgin America United States 7166 51 141
98 PC PGT Pegasus Turkey 7144 38 188
99 LS EXS Jet2 United Kingdom 7047 40 176
100 X3 TUI TUIfly Germany 6961 39 178
101 SG SEJ SpiceJet India 6921 40 173
102 SN BEL Brussels Airlines Belgium 6871 49 ST 140
103 TS TSC AirTransat Canada 6867 23 299
104 RW RPA Republic Airlines United States 6798 85 80
105 S7 SBI Siberia Airlines Russia 6411 42 SA)">OW 153
106 NK NKS Spirit Airlines United States 6316 40 158
107 W6 WZZ Wizzair Hungary 6300 35 180
108 7P BTV Batavia Air Indonesia 6220 37 168
109 GS GCR Tianjin Airlines China 6066 72 84
110 5J CEB CEBU Pacific Air Philippines 6014 40 150
111 TA TAI TACA Int'l Airlines El Salvador 5902 44 134
112 AH DAH Air Algérie Algeria 5899 42 140
113 BE BEE Flybe United Kingdom 5836 67 87
114 HV TRA Transavia Netherlands 5770 33 175
115 AD AZU AZUL - Linhas Aereas Brasileiras Brazil 5698 55 104
116 JD CBJ Capital Airlines China 5634 38 148
117 GF GFA Gulf Air Bahrain 5589 34 164
118 CL CLH Lufthansa CityLine Germany 5525 60 ST 92
119 9C CQH Spring Airlines China 5394 31 174
120 8Q OHY Onur Air Turkey 5340 24 223
121 Y4 VOI Volaris Mexico 5304 35 152
122 RJ RJA Royal Jordanian Airlines Jordan 5039 32 SA)">OW 157

Would love to receive the spread sheet. Its fascinating to see how the rankings change if you use fleet size, or average PPA. Emirates either jumps to the top or bottom. [email protected]

Thanks for doing this SkyTeam7488!

Quoting stuYYZ (Reply 1): Would love to receive the spread sheet. Its fascinating to see how the rankings change if you use fleet size, or average PPA. Emirates either jumps to the top or bottom. [email protected]

Same here. Please email me through the site or pm me if that does not work. I'm also an avid data collector!

Interesting read, well done for doing that.

Do the figure for DL, UA and AA just include mainline or is it including the regionals as well?

Quoting SkyTeam7488 (Thread starter): If every airline listed flew every active aircraft at the same time, there would be 2,403,593 seats in the air.

it would also be ATC's worst nightmare   

Thenoflyzone

Quoting ual777uk (Reply 3):

No, those figures are strictly mainline. Some of the regionals are listed, but only if they had over 5000+ seats. There were quite a few close calls with around 4900 or so.

Glad I could be of use to everyone. I'll have the files e-mailed tomorrow, on the run before work now.

Great list,but may I suggest a few commas for easier reading,
What does the SA" mean before some carriers ie SA" DL or SA"UA?

Wow, excellent job SkyTeam7488.

Thanks for sharing!

Regards
BrusselsSouth

Quoting bobnwa (Reply 6): What does the SA" mean before some carriers ie SA" DL or SA"UA?

It's the Airliners.net system. There are some quirks, it's just part of the programming.

Quoting thenoflyzone (Reply 4): Quoting SkyTeam7488 (Thread starter): If every airline listed flew every active aircraft at the same time, there would be 2,403,593 seats in the air. it would also be ATC's worst nightmare

And I don't even want to think about the resulting situation in baggage claim. -ir

So Delta and United are more than twice the size of any foreign rival. Interesting stuff.

AF & KL should be counted together. They merged just like UA & CO and DL & NW, they just kept their separate names.

It's one company.

Quoting IslandRob (Reply 9): And I don't even want to think about the resulting situation in baggage claim. -ir

LOL.... that's if you ever make it past customs !

Thenoflyzone

Quoting klmcedric (Reply 11): AF & KL should be counted together. They merged just like UA & CO and DL & NW, they just kept their separate names. It's one company.

Then it should be the same for BA/IB as they are merged via IAG.

Could you explain what PPA means?

Pardon the mess in the format of the opening post, I simply copied and pasted from my spreadsheet. I'm trying to convert it to Google Docs so I can link it to here for easier reading. It is a fairly large file, not sure why it didn't work the first time.

In regards to AF/KL, BA/IB, WN/FL, LX/LH: I agree the totals should be combined and will be reflected on the Google Docs link. Since the fleets still remain seperate, I didn't want to actually combine the aircraft lists so not to get frames within the airline mixed up.

PPA stands for Passengers per Aircraft. It is the Total Seat Count divided by the Total Fleet Count. It reflects the average number of seats per aircraft.

Quoting SkyTeam7488 (Reply 15): In regards to AF/KL, BA/IB, WN/FL, LX/LH: I agree the totals should be combined and will be reflected on the Google Docs link. Since the fleets still remain seperate, I didn't want to actually combine the aircraft lists so not to get frames within the airline mixed up.

I personally would prefer to see the breakdown by division (AF & KL separate). Does your spreadsheet show the different aircraft types as well or overall figures? What about travel classes? As you can see, this data is interesting to me! Btw SkyTeam7488 I thought I'd messaged you but I'm not sure. Please check your messages.

Quoting pnd100 (Reply 16):

Yes, the spreadsheet has the aircraft listings by registration for each airline listed. I didn't see any messages from you, but if you PM me your address again I'll email it.

Quoting pnd100 (Reply 16): I personally would prefer to see the breakdown by division (AF & KL separate). Does your spreadsheet show the different aircraft types as well or overall figures? What about travel classes? As you can see, this data is interesting to me! Btw SkyTeam7488 I thought I'd messaged you but I'm not sure. Please check your messages.

I agree. I think if two airlines are on separate operating certificates they should be reported separately, even if they are owned by the same holding company. But that's just my opinion; to each his/her own.