American Airlines maintains its position as the world’s largest airline in terms of flight frequencies, operating 189,100 flights this month. This figure, according to the latest OAG report, is significantly higher than its closest competitor, Delta Air Lines, which schedules 149,200 flights – a difference of 39,900 frequencies.
Looking at year-over-year growth in flight operations, United Airlines demonstrates the most substantial increase, adding 10,500 more frequencies compared to April 2024. American Airlines closely follows with an addition of 10,200 frequencies.
In terms of percentage growth, IndiGo continues its rapid expansion, exhibiting the fastest rate of increase at 13% compared to the previous year. Conversely, Deutsche Lufthansa AG shows the most significant decline in flight frequencies, down by 7.3% year-over-year.
The OAG data also highlights the dominance of the United States as the largest domestic market, boasting 88.4 million seats this month. This is a considerable lead of over 19.8 million seats compared to the second-largest domestic market, China, which has a capacity of 68.5 million seats.
India stands out as the fastest-growing domestic market among the Top 10, with a growth rate of 9.7% over the last year. Mexico follows closely with a growth of 9.1%. In contrast, Indonesia experiences the largest decline in the Top 10 domestic markets, with a 9.9% reduction in capacity compared to last year, continuing a downward trend. Other domestic markets showing a decrease this month include Spain (-2.8%), Australia (-1.4%), and Türkiye (-1.1%).
Globally, airline capacity is set to reach 501.6 million seats in April 2025, representing a 4% increase (or an additional 20.8 million seats) compared to April 2024.
North America holds the largest regional capacity with 110.2 million seats, closely followed by North East Asia with 108.6 million seats. Western Europe exhibits the most significant growth in seat capacity this month, adding 4.2 million seats to reach a total of 105.4 million compared to last year.
In terms of percentage growth by region, Central Asia and North Africa lead the way with capacity increases of 16% and 11% respectively. Central/Western Africa is the only region experiencing a decline in capacity compared to last year, with a decrease of 5.7%.
