Net profit of airlines worldwide 2006-2022

This statistic shows the net profit of commercial airlines worldwide from 2006 to 2021 and gives a projection for 2022. In 2021, due to the coronavirus outbreak, commercial airlines estimate to report another 51.8 billion U.S. dollars in net profit losses, after reporting 137.7 billion U.S. dollars in losses in 2020.

U.S. airline industry

In 2020, the U.S. airline industry generated total operating revenue of only 130.85 billion U.S. dollars. As one of the largest markets in the airline industry worldwide, the country also has about a third of all airports in the world - more than any other country: around 15,000 airports of all sizes, out of which more than 5,000 have paved runways. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International in Georgia is the busiest airport in the country, having handled a little over 20.7 million passengers in 2020.

U.S. airlines

Major airline companies in the United States can be classified into three categories: mainline passenger lines, regional airlines and freight carriers. Mainline passenger companies include carriers such as Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, American Airlines or Virgin America. Regional airlines include the following carriers: Envoy Air, ExpressJet and SkyWest Airlines, while the largest freight carriers are FedEx Express and UPS Airlines; these two companies topped a worldwide ranking of airlines based on cargo volume in 2020. Based on passenger traffic, American Airlines came second in a worldwide ranking, with around 95.32 million passengers, while Southwest recorded the largest amount of domestic enplanements - 66.6 million in 2020.