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The three largest U.S. full-cost carriers sit atop the list of passenger kilometers (RPKs) flown worldwide in 2024, with United Airlines managing to reach top spot with *** billion RPKs. Delta Air Lines ranked second with ****billion RPKs, while American Airlines rounded out the top three with *** ²ú¾±±ô±ô¾±´Ç²Ô.Ìý

Revenue passenger kilometers

Revenue passenger kilometers (or revenue passenger miles, in some territories) are a measure of passenger demand in a given market. They are calculated by multiplying the number of revenue-paying passengers aboard an aircraft by the distance the aircraft traveled. Often RPKs are compared to available seat kilometers (ASKs), which are the number of seats available for sale on an aircraft multiplied by the distance flown. ASKs effectively measure supply in a given market, with the goal of airlines being to match their ASKs offered with their RPKs flown.

Airline metrics

Across most airline industry metrics the large full-cost U.S. airlines dominate. Looking at only the number of passengers flown, American and Delta again sit in first and second place, with U.S. low-cost carrier Southwest coming in just ahead of United. Revenue figures tells a similar story, but with German national carrier Lufthansa replacing Southwest. However, when considering the number of airport pairs served, all the U.S. carriers are beaten out by Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair, who serve nearly ** percent more airport pairs than American Airlines.