Six United States carriers have made the list of the airlines with the most flight frequencies, with 
American Airlines
offering the most flights globally in December. The airline has scheduled over 182,000 flights in December, overshadowing its closest competitors by a wide margin.
US airlines dominating frequency rankings
According to statistics by the travel data company OAG, six US-based airlines, namely American Airlines, 
Alaska Airlines
, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines, are among the top 20 airlines in the world in terms of frequencies in December.
American Airlines dominates the list with 182,431 monthly flights, an increase of 8.8% year-on-year (YoY). The second airline on the list is 
Delta Air Lines
, which has scheduled 144,259 flights during the month, an increase of 6.7% YoY.
Photo: Robin Guess | Shutterstock
Third is 
United Airlines
, which has offered 139,743 flights to its customers during the month, an increase of 10.9% YoY.
Coming in fourth is 
Southwest Airlines
, with 118,966 scheduled itineraries in December, one out of two US airlines on the list that has slashed YoY capacity during the last month of the year. In December 2023, the Dallas Love Field
(DAL) headquartered airline had 130,589 monthly flights, or 8.9% more than in December 2024.
The fifth airline on the list – or rather an airline group with several air operator’s certificates (AOC) across Europe – and the first non-US company is Ryanair
, with 74,773 flights in December.
The sixth and the first airline in Asia is China Eastern Airlines
, with 68,685 flights, while the closely related China Southern Airlines
is just below in the ranking with 67,566 itineraries.
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Growing Alaskan frequencies
The remaining two US carriers are Alaska Airlines and JetBlue
, with 36,773 and 28,321 flights in December, respectively. However, Alaska Airlines’ data is separate from Hawaiian Airlines’ itineraries, despite their merger in September.
According to data from Cirium’s Diio Mi airline planning system, Hawaiian Airlines
has scheduled 7,071 flights in December. Still, despite the additional 7,071 monthly frequencies, the Alaska Airlines-Hawaiian Airlines joint company, which is currently pursuing a single AOC, would not come close to its larger competitors.
Photo: christianthiel.net | Shutterstock
However, it would overtake easyJet
, which has scheduled 43,601 weekly flights during the month, and be several thousand short of LATAM Airlines
, whose group companies have planned 48,246 itineraries in December.
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Monthly reductions
However, Cirium data showed that all six US carriers have scheduled significant capacity cuts month-on-month (MoM), with a total of 9,447 weekly flights being removed in December compared to November.
The cuts were underpinned by United Airlines (2,886 fewer weekly itineraries MoM), Southwest Airlines (2,844), and American Airlines (1,901). JetBlue introduced the fewest MoM reductions (390), while Alaska Airlines (631) and Delta Air Lines (795) had fewer than 1,000 MoM weekly flight reductions in December.
Photo: EQRoy | Shutterstock
Still, compared to December 2023, it was only a 1.9% reduction YoY. Interestingly, Southwest Airlines has reduced its December schedule by a whopping 10,733 weekly flights, or 26.5% YoY. The only other airline to do so was JetBlue, which removed 501 weekly itineraries from its system YoY.
Both airlines, as well as American Airlines, updated their Q4 guidance, expressing that a more positive business environment during the Holiday period, as well as following the US election, improved the carriers’ revenue outlook for the quarter.
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