What is the world's largest airline (And, what is the criteria?)

"Kenny McCormack" <gazelle@xmission.xmission.com> wrote in message
news:g2h981$r0u$1@news.xmission.com...
> What is the world's largest airline (And, what is the criteria?)
>
> First, a quick online search says the answer (as of now, 2008) is
> "American Airlines", but that up until recently, it was United.
>
> However, I was watching an old game show (on GSN) and the question was
> asked, and the answer was given as Aeroflot (Russian carrier). Playing
> along with the game show, I thought the answer was United and was
> surprised at their answer.
>
> So:
> 1) Was Aeroflot really the world's largest (in '84/'85) ?
> 2) (Absent any specification) What is the criteria? Market Cap? # of
> employees? # of planes? # of cities served? Revenue?
>

At that time Aeroflot did everything in the USSR. It had more planes and
carried more passengers than any other airline in the world. Of course,
they didn't have a capitalisation as such so that measure doesn't work and
fares were subsidised so revenue would not be comparable. I suspect number
of cities served was also pretty big and may well have been biggest.

On Sun, 8 Jun 2008 18:43:13 +0000 (UTC), gazelle@xmission.xmission.com
(Kenny McCormack) wrote:

>What is the world's largest airline (And, what is the criteria?)
>
>First, a quick online search says the answer (as of now, 2008) is
>"American Airlines", but that up until recently, it was United.

It can vary, as different media outlets don't often use the same
metric. But a business-oriented media outlet will use revenue
passenger miles. That metric helps smooth out the difference between
airlines who specialize in short hops and those who do a lot of
international/long-haul flights.

As its name implies, an RPM is the equivalent of one passenger flown
one mile. So, for example, Southwest can carry a plane of 150 people
2,000 miles and generate the same number of miles as 50 flown on an
international flight of 6,000 miles. (Yes, I know there aren't a ton
of 6,000-mile flights offered, but you get the point....)
>
>However, I was watching an old game show (on GSN) and the question was
>asked, and the answer was given as Aeroflot (Russian carrier). Playing
>along with the game show, I thought the answer was United and was
>surprised at their answer.

In all likelihood they're using passengers carried, not revenue
passenger miles. Airports and a lot of media outlets use this metric
instead, even though it's a distorted number.
>
>So:
>1) Was Aeroflot really the world's largest (in '84/'85) ?
>2) (Absent any specification) What is the criteria? Market Cap? # of
>employees? # of planes? # of cities served? Revenue?