Misc
Visualizing Well-Known Airlines by Fleet Composition
Visualizing Well-Known Airlines by Fleet Composition
How many airplanes do the world’s major airlines utilize in their fleets, and which models do they prefer?
Some prefer newer planes, such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which came into service in the 2010s. Others prefer large planes, like the Airbus A380 , the world’s largest passenger aircraft. A few carriers, like Air France–KLM, opt for variety. The airline uses 16 different active models. This contrasts with Southwest Airlines, which utilizes a single model in its fleet.
This series of graphics visualizes some of the world’s most well-known airliners by fleet composition, using fleet data from Planespotters.net as of May 26, 2022.
How Many Planes Are in Airline Fleets?
Each plane in a fleet is tracked in meticulous detail, from its start of service date and age, to its registration number and current status.
Above we visualized the parent airline’s current fleets, which includes planes that are either in service or parked for future service. They do not include retired planes (the historic fleet) or future planes on order.
From conglomerates to flag carriers, here are some of the world’s most well-known airline fleets:
U.S. based airlines were far and away the largest aircraft carriers, with American Airlines being the world’s largest airline by fleet size since 2019. Interestingly, Delta Airlines was the largest by revenue in 2020, despite a smaller fleet size.
Asia’s largest airline has been China Southern, in both fleet size, revenue, and passengers carried. Together with China Eastern and the flag carrier Air China, it is part of China’s “Big Three” airlines.
But smaller airlines aren’t any less important, or lucrative. The slightly smaller fleet size of International Airlines Group (IAG), which was formed from a merger between flag carriers British Airways and Iberia, includes planes that fly on the world’s highest grossing routes. They’re joined on the list by other smaller fleets including UAE airliner Emirates, Singapore Airlines (often ranked as the world’s best airline), and Air Canada.
Boeing, Airbus, and Other Aircraft Manufacturers
The story of airline fleets usually breaks down to the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers, Europe’s Airbus and America’s Boeing.
By outlasting key competitors and mergers in a difficult industry, the duopoly has solidified a grasp on the commercial aircraft sector. In 2019, they were estimated to control a combined 91% of the global commercial aircraft market.
Which manufacturers do the world’s popular airlines utilize? Here’s a breakdown of the same airlines from above, this time by manufacturer share:
| Share of Airline Fleets by Manufacturer (Oct 2021) | Airbus | Boeing | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lufthansa | 86.7% | 9.5% | 3.9% |
| IAG | 72.6% | 14.8% | 12.7% |
| China Eastern | 71.1% | 28.9% | 0.0% |
| Turkish Airlines | 57.2% | 42.8% | 0.0% |
| China Southern | 56.7% | 42.2% | 1.1% |
| Singapore Airlines | 51.7% | 48.3% | 0.0% |
| American Airlines | 49.8% | 50.2% | 0.0% |
| Emirates | 45.7% | 54.3% | 0.0% |
| Delta | 43.8% | 56.2% | 0.0% |
| Air Canada | 43.3% | 56.7% | 0.0% |
| Air France–KLM | 28.5% | 51.7% | 19.8% |
| United Airlines | 22.8% | 77.2% | 0.0% |
| All Nippon Airways (ANA) | 18.7% | 81.3% | 0.0% |
| Southwest Airlines | 0.0% | 100.0% | 0.0% |
Notably, European and Asian airlines have emerged as slightly bigger Airbus customers, while American carriers favor Boeing. There are also standouts, such as Southwest Airlines’ utilization of just one make, the Boeing 737.
And a few carriers used aircraft from other manufacturers as well. Brazil’s Embraer saw usage in IAG and Air France–KLM, making up 17% of the latter’s total fleet. Bombardier‘s CJR planes, formerly produced by the Canadian manufacturer but now owned by the Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, saw use by IAG, Air France–KLM, and Lufthansa. The Airbus A220 was also originally a Bombardier plane before being acquired by the European manufacturer in 2018.
China Southern Airlines was the only other airline to feature a different manufacturer’s plane in its active fleet, the ARJ21. Also known as the Xiangfeng (literally “soaring phoenix”), it was developed by Chinese state-owned manufacturer Comac and first introduced into service in 2016.
What Will Airlines Use in the Future?
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbus was starting to outperform Boeing in market share.
In 2019, the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX model after two crashes saw 387 active aircraft grounded and 1,200 canceled orders, a debacle that could go down as the most costly corporate blunder in history.
Soon after, Airbus took the global market share lead in new orders, with the Airbus A320 becoming the world’s highest selling family of aircraft in October 2019. But the COVID-19 pandemic quickly followed and severely impacted the entire aviation industry.
As countries, airliners, and manufacturers look to bounce back and recover, fleet compositions are sure to change in coming years.
Maps
Mapped: What Did the World Look Like in the Last Ice Age?
A map of the Earth 20,000 years ago, at the peak of the last ice age, when colder temperatures transformed the planet we know so well.
Creator Program
What Did the World Look Like in the Last Ice Age?
What did the world look like during the last ice age? Was it all endless glaciers and frozen ice? The answer is a partial yes—with some interesting caveats.
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), colloquially called the last ice age, was a period in Earth’s history that occurred roughly 26,000 to 19,000 years ago.
This map by cartographer Perrin Remonté offers a snapshot of the Earth from that time, using data of past sea levels and glaciers from research published in 2009, 2014, and 2021, alongside modern-day topographical data.
Let’s dive into the differences between the two Earths below.
The Last Ice Age: Low Seas, Exposed Landmasses
During an ice age, sea levels fall as ocean water that evaporates is stored on land on a large scale (ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers) instead of returning to the ocean.
| Earth's Ice Cover | 20,000 Years Ago | Today |
|---|---|---|
| Surface | 8% | 3% |
| Land | 25% | 11% |
At the time of the LGM, the climate was cold and dry with temperatures that were 6 °C (11 °F) lower on average. Water levels in the ocean were more than 400 feet below what they are now, exposing large areas of the continental shelf.
In the map above, these areas are represented as the gray, dry land most noticeable in a few big patches in Southeast Asia and between Russia and Alaska. Here are a few examples of regions of dry land from 20,000 years ago that are now under water:
- A “lost continent” called Sundaland, a southeastern extension of Asia which forms the island regions of Indonesia today. Some scholars see a connection with this location and the mythical site of Atlantis, though there are many other theories.
- The Bering land bridge, now a strait, connecting Asia and North America. It is central to the theory explaining how ancient humans crossed between the two continents.
- Another land bridge connected the island of Great Britain with the rest of continental Europe. The island of Ireland is in turn connected to Great Britain by a giant ice sheet.
- In Japan, the low water level made the Sea of Japan a lake, and a land bridge connected the region to the Asian mainland. The Yellow Sea—famous as a modern-day fishing location—was completely dry.
The cold temperatures also caused the polar parts of continents to be covered by massive ice sheets, with glaciers forming in mountainous areas.
Flora and Fauna in the Last Ice Age
The dry climate during the last ice age brought about the expansion of deserts and the disappearance of rivers, but some areas saw increased precipitation from falling temperatures.
Most of Canada and Northern Europe was covered with large ice sheets. The U.S. was a mix of ice sheets, alpine deserts, snow forests, semi-arid scrubland and temperate grasslands. Areas that are deserts today—like the Mojave—were filled with lakes. The Great Salt Lake in Utah is a remnant from this time.
Africa had a mix of grasslands in its southern half and deserts in the north—the Sahara Desert existed then as well—and Asia was a mix of tropical deserts in the west, alpine deserts in China, and grasslands in the Indian subcontinent.
Several large animals like the woolly mammoth, the mastodon, the giant beaver, and the saber-toothed tiger roamed the world in extremely harsh conditions, but sadly all are extinct today.
However, not all megafauna from the LGM disappeared forever; many species are still alive, including the Bactrian camel, the tapir, the musk ox, and the white rhinoceros—though the latter is now an endangered species.
Will There Be Another Ice Age?
In a technical sense, we’re still in an “ice age” called the Quaternary Glaciation, which began about 2.6 million years ago. That’s because a permanent ice sheet has existed for the entire time, the Antarctic, which makes geologists call this entire period an ice age.
We are currently in a relatively warmer part of that ice age, described as an interglacial period, which began 11,700 years ago. This geological epoch is known as the Holocene.
Over billions of years, the Earth has experienced numerous glacial and interglacial periods and has had five major ice ages:
| Major Ice Ages | Name | Time Period (Years Ago) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huronian Glaciation | 2.4 billion - 2.1 billion |
| 2 | Cryogenian Glaciation | 720 million - 635 million |
| 3 | Andean-Saharan Glaciation | 450 million - 420 million |
| 4 | Late Paleozoic ice age | 335 million - 260 million |
| 5 | Quaternary Glaciation | 2.6 million - present |
It is predicted that temperatures will fall again in a few thousand years, leading to expansion of ice sheets. However there are a dizzying array of factors that are still not understood well enough to say comprehensively what causes (or ends) ice ages.
A popular explanation says the degree of the Earth’s axial tilt, its wobble, and its orbital shape, are the main factors heralding the start and end of this phenomenon.
The variations in all three lead to a change in how much prolonged sunlight parts of the world receive, which in turn can cause the creation or melting of ice sheets. But these take thousands of years to coincide and cause a significant change in climate.
Furthermore, current industrial activities have warmed the climate considerably and may in fact delay the next ice age by 50,000-100,000 years.
-
United States2 weeks agoCharting the Rise of America’s Debt Ceiling
-
Money4 weeks agoComparing the Speed of Interest Rate Hikes (1988-2023)
-
Demographics2 weeks agoRanked: The Cities with the Most Skyscrapers in 2023
-
Africa4 weeks agoMap Explainer: Sudan
-
Mining2 weeks agoRanked: The World’s Biggest Steel Producers, by Country
-
Travel4 weeks agoVisualized: The World’s Busiest Airports, by Passenger Count
-
Visual Capitalist2 weeks agoJoin Us For Data Creator Con 2023
-
AI4 weeks agoVisualizing Global Attitudes Towards AI