American Airlines’ reign as the world’s largest airline could be coming to an end.
It has held that title since its $11 billion merger with US Airways but Delta Air Lines and United have jumped ahead of American in important metrics.
Firstly, American’s $662 second-quarter million profit announced last week has been dwarfed by United’s $1.1 billion and Delta with $1.4 billion.
Of course being the biggest doesn’t necessary equate to being the most profitable, but American also fell behind United in passenger capacity, a truer reflection of their respective sizes.
United reported 73.2 billion available seat miles ahead of American’s 72.3 billion available.
Delta was a close third with 71.8 billion.
It is first time American hasn’t been ranked first in at least one of those two metrics since the merger was finalized.
American is lagging in part due to the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft, which has led to thousands of cancelations.
An ongoing labor dispute with mechanics has also led to widespread cancelations across its network.
While these issues may only result in a temporary blip for the airline, there is no doubt United and Delta are catching up.
However, the world’s biggest may not even be a US airline in the near future.
China Southern Airlines recently said it aims to be the biggest carrier within three to five years, fuelled by air travel growth in Asia.
Other than losing its no1 billing, that is not necessarily a bad thing for American as it is a strategic partner and minority shareholder in Asia’s largest airline.
China Southern, which is currently the world’s six largest, plans to boost its fleet size from about 750 to more than 1,000 jets within two years, said airline president Tan Wangeng.
