5 Non-US Airlines That Operate The Most Daily Flights

Measuring the world’s largest airlines can be done in several different ways. For example, one could measure an airline’s size by statistics like available seat miles (ASMs), revenue seat miles (RSMs), fleet size, or number of destinations served. If one were to measure the world’s biggest airlines by these metrics, United Airlines would almost always come out on top. There are multiple other ways to measure the prominence of an airline, which will often result in other airlines being the world’s largest.

For example, Delta Air Lines

will appear at the top for many different financial metrics, as the US carrier that consistently delivers the highest profits. Delta would rank the highest by revenue, assets, and market capitalization. American Airlines would also rank the highest in a few categories. For starters, the company has the most employees of any global airline and flies the most passengers each year. Federal Express routinely ranks as the world’s largest cargo airline, while Southwest Airlines typically ranks as the largest by number of routes.

Recently, Simple Flying took a deeper look at the five global carriers that operated the most daily flights, with American Airlines emerging as the leader. Interestingly, four of the five airlines that operate the most flights were US-based carriers, something which results from the extremely diverse route networks operated by these carriers.

Nonetheless, there are still some extremely large non-US-based carriers which still operate extensive route networks. In this article, we will take a deeper look at five non-US-based airlines that operate the most daily flights. The data used for this ranking is from FlightsFrom, and we will be looking at daily flights during the peak summer travel period of August 2024.

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Ryanair

Number of daily flights: 3,292

For many years, Ryanair has ranked as one of the world’s busiest passenger airlines, both in terms of routes operated and total passengers carried. The airline has long been credited with establishing and being the first airline to truly succeed with a low-cost business model. There have been limited examples of times in which Ryanair has shied away from competitors, and the airline, for the most part, has focused on developing its markets and focusing on strategic expansion.

One of the reasons why Ryanair can operate so many daily flights is its relatively high rate of aircraft usage. Ryanair operates its jets throughout almost every hour of the day, with very few hours per day seeing these aircraft parked on the apron waiting around. In the world of commercial passenger aviation, time is money and Ryanair knows this well.

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A company primarily focused on operating as broad a network as possible while also ensuring that it can be cost-competitive with rivals, Ryanair focuses on maintaining a huge presence in key markets. The airline has major operating bases at tertiary airports like London Stansted Airport (STN), which offer them lower costs and fewer limitations on how many flights they can operate per day. With this in mind, it is not difficult to see why Ryanair has risen to the top of our list.

China Eastern Airlines

Number of daily flights: 2,387

China Eastern Airlines is the first of the “big three” Chinese carriers to make it onto our list. The difference between these three airlines is rather large, but they all operate extensive enough route networks to beat out most other major competitors in terms of the overall number of flights operated.

China Eastern A320 flying

Photo: alphonsusjimos | Shutterstock

Like almost all legacy airlines, China Eastern Airlines operates a hub and spoke system, which funnels passengers from tertiary destinations through a central hub airport. This allows the airline to offer as many connections as possible. The airline has two major hubs in Shanghai, with the larger (and more important) of the two being Shanghai Pudong Airport (PVG). The carrier funnels a massive portion of its traffic through this singular facility.

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China Eastern’s route network has grown rapidly over the past decade and a half, mostly as a result of increased investment from the Chinese government. Despite this growth and investment from the government, the airline still has too few hubs to match the scale and scope of the American legacy carriers and European low-cost giant Ryanair.

China Southern Airlines

Number of daily flights: 2,268

The second Chinese carrier to enter this list, China Southern Airlines, is not far behind its rival in terms of daily flight operations. The airline has an impressive range of services, most of which connect its hub at Guangzhou International Airport (CAN) to destinations across the globe. This includes both a healthy flight network within China itself but also includes many international services to popular global destinations.

China Southern Airlines Airbus A380 in Mojave shutterstock_2206445691

Photo: Angel DiBilio | Shutterstock

While China Eastern primarily focuses on dominating travel in and out of Shanghai (as well as passengers looking to connect through Shanghai on their way to other destinations), China Southern does the same with its southern hubs, which it connects to a vast global network. China Southern has always aimed to increase capacity on key routes, something which motivated the airline to order the Airbus A380.

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In recent years, however, the airline has shifted back towards a model of increasing daily flight operations and serving as many destinations as possible. Despite the growth of high-speed rail in China over the past decade, China Southern has still been able to rapidly grow its domestic network offerings.

A China Southern Airbus A380 on an airport apron during Sunset.

China Southern

China Southern Airlines is the largest airline in China. It is headquartered in Guanzhou and was the only Chinese Airline to take delivery of the Airbus A380. While it was the only airline to fly the Airbus A380 through the pandemic, it is now looking to retire the giant of the skies. (Featured image: Vincenzo Pace – Simple Flying)

IATA/ICAO Code

CZ/CSN

Year Founded

1988

IndiGo

Number of daily flights: 2,074

Indian low-cost giant IndiGo is the second low-cost carrier to enter our list, and it is arguably the most important low-cost airline in the market today. While Ryanair, easyJet, and Wizz Air all compete for a share of the passenger air travel market in Europe, IndiGo has managed to develop a stranglehold on the Indian market, capitalizing on the high-profile failures of many of its largest competitors.

IndiGo A320neo flying

Photo: BoeingMan777 | Shutterstock

IndiGo serves destinations all across India using a point-to-point network that features a handful of operating bases, a system very similar to that operated by Ryanair and other leading European low-cost airlines. The company has become known for its consistency, speed, and affordable fares, something which has opened up air travel accessibility to a larger portion of the Indian population than ever before.

IndiGo also might be the airline on this list with the largest potential to leapfrog the others in the coming years in terms of the number of daily flights operated. The low-cost carrier has plans for a long-haul expansion, with an Airbus A350 order recently placed. When the airline has an established long-haul network, it will undoubtedly become the most important low-cost carrier in Asia by market presence.

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Air China

Number of daily flights: 1,681

The final airline to enter on this list is the third of the three major legacy carriers to operate in China. Air China, one of the country’s oldest airlines, often serves as the nation’s unofficial flag carrier. As previously discussed, each of China’s major airlines (including those that are not the “big three”) has a major regional hub through which it funnels the majority of its traffic. While China Eastern has its principal base of operations in Shanghai and China Southern mostly flies out of hubs in Southern China, Air China is firm in its identity as the principal airline serving Beijing.

Air China 787-9 final approach shutterstock_2194164663

Photo: Ryken Papy | Shutterstock

Air China has major hubs at Beijing Capital Airport (PEK) and Beijing Daxing Airport (PKX), in addition to two other facilities in Chengdu. The airline has long been a leader in the provision of high-quality long-haul air services that connect Beijing to destinations across the globe, including flights to far-flung destinations like O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB) in Johannesburg, South Africa, according to News24. During the past few years, while Russian airspace has been closed to most foreign airlines, Air China has continued to fly across the nation and offers faster flights to destinations in East Asia than many of its European competitors. This has helped the airline grow in recent years, bringing it to fifth place on our list of the airlines that operate the most daily flights.

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