In 2011, global air passenger traffic generated nearly 470 billion U.S. dollars worth of revenue. According to a forecast by IATA and ICAO, sales are expected to continue rising steadily until 2013. The German airline Lufthansa achieved the world's highest turnover with regards to airline passengers in 2011. Other airlines that enjoyed high numbers of passengers for that year include Delta, Air France-KLM and International Airlines Group.

The most profitable airlines in 2011 came from Asia. Japan Airlines, Air China and China Southern were the three leaders in the global market and Delta Airlines came in at fourth place. The net profit of Delta was 854 million U.S. dollars that year.

The airline with the highest brand value in 2011 was again the German airline Lufthansa, closely followed by Singapore Airlines and Emirates. The brand value of Emirates was estimated to be around 3.8 billion U.S. dollars. Photo: sxc.hu / kolobsek

• • Financials
  • Passengers
• • Flights and punctuality