Southwest or American: Which is the USA's top carrier?

[straitman]

Southwest or American: Which is the USA's top carrier?

Which U.S. airline flew the most passengers in 2009? The would be low-cost giant Southwest, which earned that distinction for the third year in a row, according to data released Monday by the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

Southwest enplaned a total of 101.3 million passengers to finish ahead of No. 2 American, which had 85.7 million enplanements for 2009. Delta finished in the third spot with 67.8 million enplaned passengers for 2009, though it would have assumed the top spot if its total was combined with No. 7 Northwest's 40.9 million. Delta and Northwest officially completed the merger of their companies earlier this year.

 

[Bundy Bear]

And to think that Southwest only has domestic service.

Will be interesting to see whether Delta 67.745 + Northwest 40,865 combined will be in front of Southwest at the end of 2010.

 

[wandering_fred]

Why is it that I think RPMs (revenue passenger miles) would be a better measure than the count of people entering planes?

Not that I am ever cynical...... YMMV

Fred

 

[samh004]

Who says you need to have the most passengers to be the best… you could simply be the cheapest