Airlines ⋆

Airlines

There are over 5,000 airlines with ICAO codes. As of 2019, American Airlines Group was the largest by fleet size, passengers carried and revenue passenger mile. Delta Air Lines was the largest by revenue, assets value and market capitalization. Lufthansa Group was the largest by number of employees… World’s Top 10 Airlines 2021

The number of flights performed globally by the airline industry increased steadily since the early 2000s and reached 38.9 million in 2019. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the number of flights dropped to 16.9 million in 2020.

The global airline industry

The number of flights performed increased year-on-year continuously to transport both passengers and freight. The industry’s recent growth can be attributed to a combination of increasing living standards and decreasing costs of air travel. While North American and European airlines currently dominate in terms of both revenue and passengers flown, it is predicted that future growth will be highest in the emerging markets of Africa, Latin America and Asia. This is due not only to economic development but also to the expected increase in the working-age population of many countries in these regions.

Source: Statista 2021

Opinion of people on global airlines and COVID-19

Under the circumstances of COVID-19, governments made a multitude of adjustments in the aviation industry to take the spread of the pandemic under control. Flights were canceled, and individuals had to keep high levels of safety measures, such as social distancing. Subsequently, COVID-19 created many hurdles for the airlines to handle to be able to operate. According to an early 2020 survey, roughly 44 percent of individuals somewhat approved of how airlines dealt with the COVID-19 outbreak.

The emergence of COVID-19 also challenged the feeling of comfort amongst individuals to fly. As of May 2020, more than 40 percent of people expressed that they will use air travel less than planned over the next 18 months in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. This type of change in individual preferences raises a multitude of potential hurdles for aviation firms to tackle to survive this crisis sustainably.