Research Summary. If you’ve flown much, chances are you’ve been on an American Airlines flight at some point. One of the biggest airlines in the country and the world, American Airlines has been in operation since 1926 – that’s over 95 years of flying people and cargo around the world. Here are some of the key statistics on American Airlines.
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American Airlines flew 165.68 million passengers in 2021.
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American Airlines Group has 123,400 employees.
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American Airlines Group has 1,432 aircraft.
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American Airlines Group’s annual revenue was $29.88 billion in 2021.
For further analysis, we broke down the data in the following ways:
Flights and Destinations | Passengers | Company Stats | Trends
American Airlines Statistics by Flights and Destinations
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American Airlines Group flies to 350 destinations.
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Passengers can fly to 50 different countries on American Airlines.
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American Airlines and its regional partner American Eagle together have an average of 6,700 flights a day.
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In 2021, 85.1% of American Airlines flights were on time, making American Airlines the third most punctual U.S. airline.
American Airlines Statistics by Passengers
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In 2021, American Airlines’s average occupancy rate for its U.S. flights was 75.3%.
This means that about 75% of American Airlines’s seats were occupied by paying passengers on a given U.S. flight in 2021.
This was up from a 64% rate in 2020, and experts predict that this will reach 79% in 2022 as the travel industry continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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There are about 115 million members of the American Airlines loyalty program AAdvantage.
The AAdvantage program started in 1981 as a much more exclusive membership program that travelers could join by invitation only. Today, anyone can join for free, but there are still 144,000 people who have been AAdvantage members since the program’s beginning.
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In 2021, American Airlines saw 2.082 billion cargo ton-miles.
One ton-mile is equal to one ton of freight shipped one mile, so this number is a good reflection of just how much cargo American Airlines carried and how far it carried it in 2021.
In 2020, the company had just 1.383 billion cargo ton-miles, which means American Airlines saw a 50.5% increase in this area from 2020 to 2021.
American Airlines Company Statistics
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American Airlines has a 19.5% share of the U.S. domestic airline market.
American Airlines has the largest market share of any airline, followed closely by Southwest Airlines, which has a market share of 17.4%. Here is the breakdown of the leading U.S. domestic airlines and their market shares as of 2021:
Airline U.S. Domestic Airline Market Share American Airlines 19.5% Southwest Airlines 17.4% Delta Airlines 16.3% United Airlines 12.9% Alaska Airlines 5.4% JetBlue Airways 5.3% Spirit 4.9% SkyWest 3.4% Frontier 3.3% Hawaiian 1.7% Other 9.9%
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American Airlines is valued at $44.94 billion as of April 2022.
In December 2021, the company was valued at $57.1 billion, up from its June 2020 low of $38.2 billion.
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American Airlines Group is ranked number 174 on the 2021 Fortune 500 list.
This is far lower than its 2020 rank of number 70, thanks to its losing $8.9 billion and seeing its sales drop by 62% in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the travel industry.
While 2021 has been better than 2020 for American Airlines Group, it still saw a 50% year-over-year decline in the company’s Q1 revenue from 2020 (before the pandemic lockdowns took effect) to 2021, cementing its lower spot on the list for the year.
American Airlines Trends
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American Airlines Group’s annual revenue has increased from $24.86 billion in 2012 to $29.88 billion in 2021.
American Airlines Group’s revenue hit a high of $45.77 billion in 2019 before it plummeted to $17.34 billion in 2020, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic bringing the travel industry to a standstill.
Here is the breakdown of American Airlines Group’s annual revenue from 2012 to 2021:
Year Annual Revenue 2012 $24.86 billion 2013 $26.74 billion 2014 $42.65 billion 2015 $40.99 billion 2016 $40.14 billion 2017 $42.62 billion 2018 $44.54 billion 2019 $45.77 billion 2020 $17.34 billion 2021 $29.88 billion -
The number of American Airlines passengers decreased by 56% from 2019 to 2020.
In 2019, 215.18 million passengers flew American Airlines, and in 2020, the airline served just 95.32 million passengers. This is due to the COVID-19 pandemic essentially halting travel in 2020, and although the number of passengers increased in 2021 to reach 165.68 million, it was still nowhere near pre-pandemic levels.
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American Airlines Group saw a net loss of almost $2 billion in 2021.
While not as bad as the company’s 2020 net loss of $8.9 billion, it is the second year in a row that American Airlines Group has seen a net loss – especially disappointing after the company had seen six consecutive years of net income before 2020. Here are the company’s annual net income or losses from 2012 to 2021:
Year Net Income/Loss 2012 -$1.88 billion 2013 -$1.83 billion 2014 $2.88 billion 2015 $7.6 billion 2016 $2.58 billion 2017 $1.28 billion 2018 $1.41 billion 2019 $1.69 billion 2020 -$8.89 billion 2021 -$1.99 billion
American Airlines Statistics FAQ
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How many people fly with American Airlines each year?
Usually, about 200 million people fly with American Airlines each year. This was true before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, which dropped the number of people who flew American Airlines by 56% to 95.32 million. The airline has started to recover; thankfully, as of 2021, it served 165.68 million passengers.
From 2014 to 2019, however, the number of people who flew American Airlines hovered right around 200 million, hitting a high of 215.18 million in 2019. The lowest this number reached during this period was 197.34 million people in 2014, which was still significantly higher than either of its 2020 and 2021 totals.
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Is American Airlines the most popular airline in the United States?
Yes, American Airlines is the most popular airline in the United States. While American Airlines may not always top the list of most preferred or most on-time airlines in the U.S., it still has the largest market share, which shows that plenty of people are taking American Airlines flights.
American Airlines holds 19.5% of the U.S. domestic market, followed closely by Southwest Airlines, which has 17.4%, and Delta Airlines, which has 16.3%.
United Airlines comes after that with a not-insignificant 12.9% of the market before the share sizes drop off significantly – Alaska Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and Spirit each hold 5.4%, 5.3%, and 4.9% of the market, respectively.
SkyWest, Frontier, and Hawaiian all round out the bottom of this list with under 4% of the market piece, as well as a hodgepodge of other airlines whose market shares all add up to about 9.9%.
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How many people work for American Airlines?
Over 123,000 people work for American Airlines Group. American Airlines Group includes both the mainline American Airlines brand as well as its regional partner American Eagle.
At the end of 2021, parent company American Airlines Group had 123,400 full-time-equivalent employees: 96,800 of these worked for American Airlines, and 26,600 worked for American Eagle.
The total number of employees working for American Airlines Group increased from 20.2% from the end of 2020 to the end of 2021. This occurred as the company began replacing workers it had laid off during the pandemic to meet the growing demand for travel as COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns began to lift.
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How much is American Airlines worth?
American Airlines is worth $4.94 billion. This was its valuation as of April 2022. As a reference point, the company was valued at $57.1 billion in December 2021 and $38.2 billion in June 2020 (its lowest point during the COVID-19 pandemic).
As with most companies, American Airlines’ valuation has gone up and down from month to month over the past year, but overall it’s going up from its dramatic dip in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down travel and cost the company $8.9 billion.
However, American Airlines – like most other travel companies – hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic yet, showing a 50% decline in its year-over-year revenue from Q1 2020 (before COVID-19 lockdowns began) to Q1 2021. As a result of this, it dropped from number 70 to number 174 on the most recent Fortune 500 list.
As far as annual revenue goes, American Airlines earned $29.88 billion in 2021. While this is far better than the $17.34 billion it earned in 2020, it still isn’t close to its 2019 revenue of $45.77 billion.
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How many aircraft does American Airlines have?
American Airlines has 1,432 aircraft. This was the number it reported at the end of 2021, and it includes aircraft used by both American Airlines and its regional partner American Eagle.
When the number is broken down, mainline American Airlines has 865 aircraft, and the regional lines have 567. Both of these numbers are higher than they were at the end of 2020 when mainline American Airlines had 855 and American Eagle had 544.
American Airlines has one of the largest fleets of any airline, and it bought the majority of its planes from Airbus and Boeing. The company continues to add to its aircraft, purchasing planes as it and the aircraft companies’ supply lines recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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What is American Airlines’s annual revenue?
American Airlines’s annual revenue is $29.88 billion. This was the total amount of revenue it earned in 2021.
In 2012, American Airlines earned $24.86 billion in annual revenue, and after two years of steady growth, it hit $42.65 billion in 2014. For the next five years, the company’s annual revenue hovered right around $40-42 billion, dipping up and down a few times, but never dropping below $40 billion.
In 2019, American Airlines earned $45.77 billion in revenue, the largest sum it had seen, at least since 2012. Unfortunately, the next year the COVID-19 pandemic hit, shutting down travel around the world and tanking American Airlines’s revenue to $17.34 billion in 2020.
Things started looking up for the company in 2021 as its revenues started to increase again, but American Airlines is still a long way from full recovery.
Conclusion
American Airlines is a giant in the travel industry with a 19.5% market share of the U.S. domestic airline industry. 165.68 million passengers flew American Airlines in 2021, going to the airline’s 350 destinations in 50 different countries. While these are impressive numbers, American Airlines has had more than a few struggles over the past couple of years.
As with most of the travel industry, the COVID-19 pandemic did some significant damage to American Airlines, costing it $8.9 billion and tanking its sales by 62% in 2020. The airline also saw its number of passengers decrease by 56% from 2019 to 2020, and the company earned just $17.34 billion in revenue that year, down from $45.77 billion in 2019.
American Airlines is starting to recover, however, as its annual revenue reached $29.88 billion in 2021, and its number of passengers and occupancy rates increased as well.
References
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Statista. “Number of American Airlines Group Employees From FY 2012 to FY 2021.” Accessed on April 20, 2022.
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American Airlines. “American Airlines Group.” Accessed on April 20, 2022.
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Travel Awaits. “You’ll Face Fewer Delays if You Fly These 6 U.S. Airlines.” Accessed on April 20, 2022.
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Forbes. “Forecast of the Day: American Airlines Average Occupancy Rate.” Accessed on April 20, 2022.
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American Airlines. “American Airlines Reports Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2021 Financial Results.” Accessed on April 20, 2022.
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American Airlines Newsroom. “AAdvantage Celebrates 40 Years of Loyalty Innovation.” Accessed on April 20, 2022.
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Statista. “Domestic Market Share of Leading U.S. Airlines from January to December 2021.” Accessed on April 20, 2022.
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Macroaxis. “American Current Valuation: American Airlines Gp.” Accessed on April 20, 2022.
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Fortune. “Fortune 500: American Airlines Group.” Accessed on April 20, 2022.
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Macrotrends. “American Airlines Group Revenue 2010-2021 | AAL.” Accessed on April 20, 2022.
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Statista. “Number of Passengers Enplaned by American Airlines From FY 2014 to FY 2021.” Accessed on April 20, 2022.
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Statista. “American Airlines Group’s Net Income/Loss From FY 2009 to FY 2021.” Accessed on April 20, 2022.
Author
Abby is a writer who is passionate about the power of story. Whether it’s communicating complicated topics in a clear way or helping readers connect with another person or place from the comfort of their couch. Abby attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she earned a degree in writing with concentrations in journalism and business.
