Ah, 2019 - the year so normal it is now used to compare everything.

Of course, 2019 was anything but normal for aviation. The 737 MAX was grounded early in Q2 2019, the major East Asian hub of Hong Kong was dealing with historic protests, and Q4 saw the early arrival of what would become COVID-19 (hence the 19).

But compared with every year since 2019, it was just so… normal.

And so, we once again make our comparison this week to 2019.

Considering “things” happened between 2019 and 2024, we look at the airlines that have seen the most growth since. Since the challenge is all about deploying capacity in the post-pandemic world, we look at capacity itself. Which airlines have added the most capacity to the system?

Top o’ the list is Ryanair. The airline has been on a growth spree, deploying over 60 billion additional ASKs during 2024 (full year) compared to 2019. This is not necessarily new. Ryanair is a growth airline, and the combined system has added the most capacity under the Ryanair brand over the past five years.

Half of the top 20 airlines are ULCCs, a portion we expected to be higher, quite frankly. That leaves the other half as network airlines, adding raw ASKs into the market as quickly as possible.

Turkish Airlines continues to impress with simply incredible growth. While not quite to ULCC levels, the level of growth achieved by Turkish over the past five years has dwarfed other large network airlines, increasing by 37% since 2019.

Take the next network airline on the list - United—massive growth from United through blockbuster orders and a seeming unwillingness to retire anything. Still, United has grown only 10%, pushing an incredible amount of ASKs (or ASMs if you prefer the King’s system).

In a post-COVID world where attention has been simply on recovering to 2019 levels, it’s easy to overlook the airlines that have surpassed. Enjoy the top 20.

Quiz - which airline, when?

This week’s quiz comes in two forms: easy and hard. First, the easy question: Which airline is depicted in the route map below?

Think you’ve got that? Ok, WHEN was this route map flown? The only hint we’ll give you is that it was in September.

Zoomed-in map to domestic U.S. flights.

Ready for the answer? Click here.

Our research published this week:

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