There are many ways to measure the largest airline. This week, we look at the number of seats in the fleet. It should come as a surprise to no subscribers of this newsletter that United Airlines has taken over the top spot.

The metric looks at total seats in the active fleet focused on operating airlines. That means regional or subsidiary airlines don’t count. Well, they do, just not towards the parent airline.

This is especially meaningful for United Airlines which controls a sizeable regional aircraft fleet as well, operated by other regional airlines. Despite not counting seats deployed by a large regional presence, the top three airlines remain United, American, and Delta, with Southwest Airlines remaining consistently in the fourth position.

We have noted some airlines expected to have moved up in the rankings. In particular, Turkish Airways and IndiGo Airlines have been in growth mode. Still, Turkish remained in 9th position, while IndiGo actually dropped from 12th to 14th. Since this metric considers active seats in the fleet, IndiGo still suffers from GTF issues, keeping some aircraft (and their seats) on the ground.

Qatar Airways and Ryanair are both in growth mode, increasing fleets relative to competitors, while JetBlue and Alaska take some needed breathers.

However, one airline rocketed (back) into 17th position. This airline caught our interest, especially considering its circumstances over the past five years.

Which airline is at number 17?

Click here for the answer.

Research published this week

We have been in a research publishing frenzy the past week. Here are some of the analyses you may have missed if you’re not a subscriber to Visual Approach Research:

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