Home » News » Aussie airlines take a hit in latest World Airline Ranking as Qantas drops more than 50 spots

2 September, 2022

Aussie airlines take a hit in latest World Airline Ranking as Qantas drops more than 50 spots

Aviation analytics provider Cirium released its World Airline Passenger Rankings for 2021 yesterday, which saw Qantas drop from 24 in 2019 to 77.

The airlines are ranked based on Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPK). An RPK is a transportation industry metric that shows the number of kilometres travelled by paying passengers. RPK’s are calculated by multiplying the number of paying passengers by the distance travelled.

Qantas’ drop in rankings is not surprising considering the airline was grounded domestically for long periods of 2021 and its international operations did not restart until November.

However, the airline has been the centre of a few controversies lately, with reports of cancelled and delayed flights and missing baggage turning public opinion of the airline.

Qantas Group recently posted its third annual loss, resulting in a total loss of $7 billion over the pandemic.

Other Aussie airlines that featured on the rankings include Virgin Australia, which dropped from 60 in 2019 to 92, and Jetstar, which dropped from 64 in 2019 to 90.

Taking the top spot is American Airlines, followed by Delta Air Lines, United Air Lines and then Southwest Airlines. North American airlines showed 75 per cent growth from their low point in 2020, although this was still down 40 per cent on 2019 traffic levels, as measured in RPKs.

“Pre-pandemic, Asia Pacific airlines held the single largest share of global passenger traffic, with over a third of the world total,” Jeremy Bowen, Cirium CEO, said.

“By 2021 the region was overtaken by North America, led by the strong recovery in domestic US flying.”

The ranking is based on over 600 operators tracked in the Cirium airline database and showed that world traffic ended 2021 down by 57 per cent against 2019’s peak. The number of passengers in 2021 was 2.3 billion, about half of the volume from the peak in 2019.

Low-cost carriers rose up the rankings across the regions, with Ryanair coming fifth and making its mark as the only European airline to make it in the top 10.

Many European major network carriers have fared worse than their North American counterparts, as demand for long-haul, premium travel lulled. Air France maintained its spot at 13, but Lufthansa slipped down the ranking and British Airways fell from 12 in 2019 to 30.

The Cirium ranking highlights the struggle which mainline carriers have faced, especially those relying on a strong mix of business travel and long-haul flying. By 2021 their share of world passenger traffic had slipped some five percentage points to 64 per cent. That decline was largely picked up by low-cost carriers, who raised their share to 26 per cent.

Image source: Qantas

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Cirium Jeremy Bowen qantas Revenue Passenger Kilometres RPK World Airline Passenger Rankings