Is American Airlines a big airline?

  • Jul 30, 2024
Is American Airlines a big airline?

American Airlines is currently on the list of the top ten airlines in the global market. A large number of aircraft, numerous destinations, millions of passengers per year, and billions of dollars in revenues are indications of this fact. However, what may constitute the definition of whether an airline is ‘big’ might not always be well-defined.

The following are the reasons that show that American Airlines can be described as one of the largest and most significant airlines on the planet:.

Fleet Size The mainline operating aircraft fleet of American Airlines consists of more than 960 aircraft. This includes narrow-body airliners such as Airbus, Boeing, and regional jet airliners. There are very few other global airlines that boast a similar fleet strength, with the US carriers including Delta, United, and Southwest. Operates nearly 1000 airplanes flying to hundreds of destinations, which automatically places American in the bracket of great airlines based on fleet size alone.

Number of Passengers American Airlines earned more than 200 million total passengers in 2019, which was before the occurrence of COVID-19. This applies to all the passengers on the mainline and regional flights operated by American Airlines. More than 200 million passengers in one year, which is quite a lot and something most companies cannot achieve. From 2020 to 2021, the demand for air travel reduced significantly due to the emergence of COVID-19, yet American Airlines remained among the top-ranked airlines, flying many passengers per year. These statistics of passengers flying with American Airlines in the given fiscal year prove that the airline is among the largest air carriers, especially when it comes to passenger traffic.

Number of Destinations Another clear indication of the size of the company is the number of routes and destinations covered by American Airlines. In a year, Americans fly to more than 350 locations in more than 50 countries. It is very rare to find other airlines with route networks that cover many airports globally, as can be seen with this list. Because of its broad coverage of both domestic and international markets, it is likely that American transports large passenger traffic both within and through out North America, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia Pacific. The total number of destinations is proportional to the fleet’s size and annual passengers’ traffic count as well.

Revenue The business of American Airlines is very large and as a major airline in the United States, it earns operating revenues of more than 45 billion US dollars in a typical year before the COVID-19 pandemic. This measure puts American airline among the best-earning airlines in the global market in terms of financial returns, such as revenues. Reaching the level of tens of billions of US dollars in terms of annual revenues also testifies to the real size, productivity, and customer preferences of the airline and its rapid organic growth over more than a decade. The numbers present further evidence of this, as the airline has continued to post high revenues regardless of the recession or problems in the industry.

Employees There are many employees in the American Airlines company since it is largest airline in America. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the airline had over 130,000 employees staffing the airport and corporate offices and various other airplane operations, including flight, maintenance, reservations, and customer service. The sheer number of employees to manage as well as the numerous flights over a network of locations around the world seem to keep American Airlines among the largest aviation employers. It is a huge network of individuals, assets, equipment, machinery and other related tools.

Competitive Factors The key rival are Delta, United, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska Airlines and other airline organizations at the national as well as international level. That American has sustained competitive parity, a network scale, and operational performance levels shows strengths that other mega airlines possess. Regardless of fluctuations in the economy, events on the world stage, sudden changes in the scope of this industry or changes in the price of fuel over the decades, America has remained afloat as an industry and as an airline, like all of its major competitors. This goes a long way in pointing to American’s size, its skills, and its well-established brand personality.

Operational Metrics From an operational perspective, American Airlines outperforms many other airlines in terms of the number of daily aircraft departures, weekly flights booked and annual aircraft miles. Examples of such airports include Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and many others; where American provides early morning to late evening operations with hundreds of daily flights. It also has impressive operational performance results in its completion factor and on-time arrival rate, as well as reliability and service quality for a large carrier.

Loyalty Program Size The American has one of the largest loyalty programs, the frequent flyer program, with membership exceeding 100 million. The Advantage program has demonstrated a pool of loyal customers cultivated for approximately 37 years. In terms of membership, American has a lower-tier program of Delta SkyMiles or United MileagePlus but has a similar number of memberships. To put this into perspective, after the American-USAir merger, the total AAdvantage members surpassed the carrying capacities of numerous countries. It is a sign of brand immersiveness that is very common in the current world of marketing.

When assessed using the above metrics, it is clear that American Airlines is one of the largest passenger airlines in the world. Fragile factors such as a great number of aircrafts, extensive networks, America’s position in the leadership of transporting numerous numbers of flyers each year, and reasonable financial and operational performance all add to the testimony that American Airline is among the greatest global mega airlines brands. Its growth path, targeting more high-value clients in strategically significant markets, is likely to enhance American’s position both in the domestic and foreign context as the leading air carrier. While one-off shock instances can affect near-term results, it is important to note that American Airlines has core qualities of the largest aviation networks.

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