New data released by OAG for November 2025 reveals strong global capacity growth and continued dominance by North American carriers, with American Airlines (AA) retaining its position as the world’s largest airline by flight frequency. Global seat capacity is up 4.2% compared to November 2024, adding 19.2 million more seats to the market.
American Airlines led the world by a significant margin, operating 183,594 flights this month. AA also recorded the largest frequency increase among the Top 20 airlines, adding 9,017 flights since November 2024. US carriers secured the top four spots in the frequency rankings, with Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines following closely behind. Conversely, several established carriers saw frequency declines, including Deutsche Lufthansa (down 8.5%), Air Canada (down 1.3%), and Japan Airlines (down 1.3%).
The USA remains the largest domestic market globally, offering 86.5 million seats in November 2025—20.9 million more than China, which sits in second place with 65.6 million seats. However, China demonstrated the highest volume growth among the Top 10 domestic markets, adding 2.3 million seats compared to last November. India and Mexico also showed significant percentage increases in domestic seat capacity, rising 8.9% and 7.9% year-on-year, respectively. Japan, Indonesia, and Spain reported declines in domestic seat capacity compared to the previous year.
Overall global capacity for November is projected at 481.9 million seats. On a regional basis, North East Asia and Western Europe were the two largest volume growth regions, increasing capacity by 4.3 million and 3.4 million seats, respectively, compared to last year.
Highlighting dynamic recovery, Southern Africa is expected to record the strongest growth rate among IATA regions, demonstrating an 11.9% increase in capacity year-on-year. The Caribbean was the only one of the 17 IATA regions to show a contraction in capacity, with a reduction of 2.4% from November 2024.
