Visual of largest airlines by state in the USA

FoxtrotSierra · Sat Oct 21, 2017 1:37 am

WN-16
DL-12
UA-9
AA-6
AS-4
B6-1
HA-1

B747forever · Sat Oct 21, 2017 1:51 am

Very interesting way to look at things. Thanks for sharing,

Southwest is absolutely number one in CA, especially with all the flights between the Bay Area (SFO, OAK and to some extend SJC) and LA (LAX, BUR, ONT, SNA, LGB). However, they still have many CA targeted offers as they want to fend off the combined AS/VX. The latest offer is a WN credit card with companion pass through 2018 after first purchase (I couldnt pass on this offer and signed up).

448205 · Sat Oct 21, 2017 1:58 am

How is WN the leader in Kansas? They aren't even the largest in Wichita, the only city they serve in the state.

Upon further examination, no way is this map accurate.

AA leads in Wichita and serves MHK and GCK. I'm sure other states are wrong as well.

Cubsrule · Sat Oct 21, 2017 2:13 am

Varsity1 wrote:
How is WN the leader in Kansas? They aren't even the largest in Wichita, the only city they serve in the state.

Upon further examination, no way is this map accurate.

AA leads in Wichita and serves MHK and GCK. I'm sure other states are wrong as well.

I suspect the issue is placing MCI in the wrong state. I don’t see other states that are obviously wrong. Do you?

RushmoreAir · Sat Oct 21, 2017 2:28 am

Cross-checking with T-100 data, then at least Maine (AA, not UA), South Dakota (DL, not UA) and West Virginia (AA, not UA) are wrong. IIRC, the BTS site they used to gather the data has been iffy in correctly including and reporting regionals (and allocating them to the right major), so for smaller states that might make a huge difference.

sagechan · Sat Oct 21, 2017 2:29 am

UA for WV surprises me. They are usually 3rd in CRW, and only have EAS thats rotated with some non-branded flying over the years at CKB/PKB/MGW. DL is only at CRW, and AA is in CRW and HTS. CRW is somewhat clode between the big 3, so maybe there is enough on the EAS routes.

jb1087xna · Sat Oct 21, 2017 2:38 am

My home state (AR) sticks out from the AA trend of only "winning" states that it has some its biggest hubs in. LIT is basically split between WN and DL but XNA and FSM are both dominated by AA.
(Assuming the map is accurate.)

rbavfan · Sat Oct 21, 2017 2:52 am

Is it based on: 1: Boardings at each airport, 2: Fights at each airport or 3: where the passengers live that fly to the airport. If it is nunmber 3 WN would be biggest in Kansas.

B595 · Sat Oct 21, 2017 3:09 am

I would have guessed Delta for Wisconsin, given their strong presence in Milwaukee, Madison, and Green Bay (hold-overs from the Northwest days), not to mention all the small cities like LaCrosse and Eau Claire that still have regional connections to MSP. But apparently Southwest's MKE ops alone are enough to outdo all those Delta cities

Thefireset · Sat Oct 21, 2017 3:15 am

rbavfan wrote:
Is it based on: 1: Boardings at each airport, 2: Fights at each airport or 3: where the passengers live that fly to the airport. If it is nunmber 3 WN would be biggest in Kansas.

Yes of course we don't on what this is based, but if it's the number one they are some errors and it's probably not the number 3 because it's hard to have all the data about where lives the passengers, it's easier to have the data of pax. boarding in each airlines.

ElroyJetson · Sat Oct 21, 2017 4:37 am

No way UA is # 1 in Virginia. It would have to be DL by a mile.

jetmatt777 · Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:43 am

ElroyJetson wrote:
No way UA is # 1 in Virginia. It would have to be DL by a mile.

Are you sure? United has a fairly big hub in Chantilly, VA.

KATL2 · Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:47 am

ElroyJetson wrote:
No way UA is # 1 in Virginia. It would have to be DL by a mile.

um, Dulles is in VA

rta · Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:58 am

I'm not sure how accurate this data is when accounting for regionals. Also, listing the airlines by number of states is kind of painful to look at. AA only has 6, but obviously they are the largest airline - and much larger than WN.

B595 wrote:
I would have guessed Delta for Wisconsin, given their strong presence in Milwaukee, Madison, and Green Bay (hold-overs from the Northwest days), not to mention all the small cities like LaCrosse and Eau Claire that still have regional connections to MSP. But apparently Southwest's MKE ops alone are enough to outdo all those Delta cities

Agreed. Very surprising, if true.

ElroyJetson wrote:
No way UA is # 1 in Virginia. It would have to be DL by a mile.

IAD

Thefireset · Sat Oct 21, 2017 3:43 pm

For Wisconsin: WN have an hub at MKE, reprensenting 45% of the trafic at this airport. So I think the data are good for this state.

For Virginia, IAD is very important in this state

For WN having more states than AA, it's because WN have more hub in differents states than American. American has big hubs in only a few states. And all the regional routes to these hub represent smaller trafic than Southwest flights in regional states.

ElroyJetson · Sat Oct 21, 2017 4:18 pm

I am aware of IAD, but UA hard a fairly small presence in the rest of the Virginia. DL is by far the largest carrier at ORF and RIC and those are not small airports.

Flighty · Sat Oct 21, 2017 4:28 pm

Interesting idea. It is telling that WN and DL have so many. This reflects their power.

I am surprised by, for example, UA being the biggest in Maine and some other random places. So I think this map gives a correct insight about WN and DL, but a very misleading insight about UA vs AA. AA is quite powerful nationwide, except maybe the northern mountain states.

gwrudolph · Sat Oct 21, 2017 4:59 pm

ElroyJetson wrote:
I am aware of IAD, but UA hard a fairly small presence in the rest of the Virginia. DL is by far the largest carrier at ORF and RIC and those are not small airports.

I'm not understanding your point. Just because DL is by far the largest carrier at ORF and RIC, doesn't mean they are the largest in the state of Virginia. UA at IAD (which is in Virginia) dwarfs the combination of the two by a long-shot.

United1 · Sat Oct 21, 2017 5:41 pm

ElroyJetson wrote:
I am aware of IAD, but UA hard a fairly small presence in the rest of the Virginia. DL is by far the largest carrier at ORF and RIC and those are not small airports.

Combined together ORF and RIC are quite a bit smaller than IAD is on its own....actually IAD is double their size.

September Flights:
ORF 2078
RIC 2231
IAD 9515

UA is the largest carrier in VA by far.

peterj324 · Sat Oct 21, 2017 6:01 pm

ElroyJetson wrote:
I am aware of IAD, but UA hard a fairly small presence in the rest of the Virginia. DL is by far the largest carrier at ORF and RIC and those are not small airports.

According to wikipedia from in march 2016, UA carried 1,079,478 passengers each month out of IAD alone and around 14 million passengers for the full calendar year. DL in RIC and ORF only combine for about 100,000 passengers each month for DL which means about 1.2 million passengers each year. Delta is not even close to matching UA in Virginia.

Cubsrule · Sat Oct 21, 2017 6:05 pm

rta wrote:
B595 wrote:
I would have guessed Delta for Wisconsin, given their strong presence in Milwaukee, Madison, and Green Bay (hold-overs from the Northwest days), not to mention all the small cities like LaCrosse and Eau Claire that still have regional connections to MSP. But apparently Southwest's MKE ops alone are enough to outdo all those Delta cities

Agreed. Very surprising, if true.

Gauge is important here. DL operated 250 outbound seats at CWA yesterday, and the load factor was likely lower than WN’s load factor at MKE. That’s barely more passengers than a single WN 738 flight.

deltacto · Sat Oct 21, 2017 6:05 pm

Is DCA considered part of Virginia?

Sightseer · Sat Oct 21, 2017 6:17 pm

deltacto wrote:
Is DCA considered part of Virginia?

It should be. Regardless, I'm sure UA is ahead with all the widebodies and long-haul flights it has out of IAD, assuming this graphic (which I think is very cool, by the way, even if it's inaccurate in a few places) is based on total passengers or ASMs.

WkndWanderer · Sat Oct 21, 2017 6:40 pm

When you account for the facts that DCA is in Arlington and AA is hardly insignificant in the rest of Virginia, I wouldn't be surprise if Delta was actually 3rd in the state.

blueflyer · Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:06 pm

deltacto wrote:
Is DCA considered part of Virginia?

It is. It's officially in Arlington, VA.

platinumfoota · Sat Oct 21, 2017 8:23 pm

WN first in California?? UA has 2 Hubs SFO and LAX

Sightseer · Sat Oct 21, 2017 8:39 pm

platinumfoota wrote:
WN first in California?? UA has 2 Hubs SFO and LAX

There is much, much more to California aviation than SFO and LAX. SAN, SNA, ONT, BUR, SJC, OAK, SMF, etc. WN is much larger than UA at all of those and isn't all that far behind at LAX. And as far as legacy carrier hubs go, UA's operations at LAX, and arguably SFO to a lesser extent, are on the smaller end of the spectrum.

airlinedork · Sat Oct 21, 2017 9:55 pm

I think the map is only including mainline carriers, and not the feeders, which would make the map very different. BTS tends to break out all airlines separately.

IADCA · Sat Oct 21, 2017 10:03 pm

ElroyJetson wrote:
I am aware of IAD, but UA hard a fairly small presence in the rest of the Virginia. DL is by far the largest carrier at ORF and RIC and those are not small airports.

Using 2016 data, RIC (~3.8 million) and ORF (~1.6 million) combined for slightly over 5.4 million passengers. IAD had 21.9 million, more than 4x the size of those airports combined. United alone runs roughly a million passengers a month through IAD - it has roughly a 65% market share at IAD. In other words, UA has more than twice the number of annual passengers at IAD as there are total passengers at ORF and RIC, even if DL had every single one of them.

WkndWanderer wrote:
When you account for the facts that DCA is in Arlington and AA is hardly insignificant in the rest of Virginia, I wouldn't be surprise if Delta was actually 3rd in the state.

It wouldn't even be a close third. AA's presence at DCA is also bigger than all of DL in the entire state combined. Just eyeballing the numbers, DL might not be far ahead of WN, either, but their numbers at places like CHO and ROA would put them clear.

BoeingGuy · Sat Oct 21, 2017 11:06 pm

The other one that surprises me is that DL is larger in Montana than AS. Is that correct?

SteveXC500 · Sat Oct 21, 2017 11:57 pm

I think it would be interesting to see the #2 airlines in each state. This would eliminate the hub impact. i.e. MSP = DL at about 70% of passengers.

RyanairGuru · Sun Oct 22, 2017 12:20 am

Agreed with DL being third in VA.

AA, via US, are still a significant force in both ORF and RIC, and larger than DL in smaller markets like CHO, ROA and PHF. Throw in DCA and it wouldn't be close.

777PHX · Sun Oct 22, 2017 12:30 am

BoeingGuy wrote:
The other one that surprises me is that DL is larger in Montana than AS. Is that correct?

G4 could actually be a contender there as well based on seats, believe it or not. Are any of the other major airlines flying mainline into MT?

EDIT: Looks like DL and UA both fly mainline into BIL.

IADCA · Sun Oct 22, 2017 1:01 am

777PHX wrote:
BoeingGuy wrote:
The other one that surprises me is that DL is larger in Montana than AS. Is that correct?

G4 could actually be a contender there as well based on seats, believe it or not. Are any of the other major airlines flying mainline into MT?

EDIT: Looks like DL and UA both fly mainline into BIL.

Both also have mainline in BZN. I think both stay mainline to at least one destination year-round, but each has mainline to multiple destinations in the summer.

cvgComair · Sun Oct 22, 2017 1:04 am

They got Kentucky right with CVG being in KY, not Ohio.

bendytendy · Sun Oct 22, 2017 2:04 am

I don't see how UA could possibly be the largest in Maine. It was only recently that UA started sending some seasonal mainline service to PWM and only recently started year round regional service to BGR. All of the other carriers serve the state year round with some mainline service. I looked at 2016 outbound passenger numbers for the state (adding together PWM & BGR) and came up with AA being the largest with 346,615, DL in second with 294,163, UA in third with 202,299, WN in 4th with 138,970 (only serves PWM), B6 in fifth with 94,170 (only serves PWM) and G4 in 6th place with 48,939 (only serves BGR). AA of course had pulled out of Maine completely before the US merger, but post merger they are now the largest, at least looking at last years numbers.

CairnterriAIR · Sun Oct 22, 2017 2:16 am

It has to be really close in CT between WN and AA....at least at BDL. I wonder if they included AA’s operation at HVN. If not then perhaps AA is bigger?

FoxtrotSierra · Sun Oct 22, 2017 2:33 am

cvgComair wrote:
They got Kentucky right with CVG being in KY, not Ohio.

I have to wonder how many people drive across to fly out of CVG and if that was factored in the numbers for it.

cvgComair · Sun Oct 22, 2017 3:29 am

FoxtrotSierra wrote:
cvgComair wrote:
They got Kentucky right with CVG being in KY, not Ohio.

I have to wonder how many people drive across to fly out of CVG and if that was factored in the numbers for it.

CVG is the main airport serving all of Cincinnati (whose metro area extends into Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana), so all of those passengers are being counted as Kentucky. I believe the rough breakdown of passengers at CVG is 70% Ohio, 20% Kentucky, and 10% Indiana. There is also significant leakage from Dayton to Cincinnati due to more nonstop options, so you have those passengers added in as well.

IPFreely · Sun Oct 22, 2017 4:03 am

BoeingGuy wrote:
The other one that surprises me is that DL is larger in Montana than AS. Is that correct?

It’s very doubtful but many of the states have questionable results. Besides Montana, take a look at Iowa. At both of the two airports of significance, DSM and CID, DL is #3 behind AA and UA. But just like Montana, DL is somehow #1? Even if you consider leakage to other states that is mostly OMA where WN is #1.

IPFreely · Sun Oct 22, 2017 4:20 am

ElroyJetson wrote:
I am aware of IAD, but UA hard a fairly small presence in the rest of the Virginia. DL is by far the largest carrier at ORF and RIC and those are not small airports.

DL has 23.9% market share in ORF, 3.5% ahead of WN. And DL has 34.9% market share at RIC, leading AA by 3.9%. I wouldn’t call that leading “by far”. Leading by far is having over 60% market share with the next closest airlines all at about 5% each, like the situation at IAD.

And as was pointed out by other posters, ORF and RIC are small airports.

FlyDeltaJets · Sun Oct 22, 2017 4:20 am

I would like to see the stats that back up the claim that Southwest is #1 in California

United not only has 2 hubs in California they also do a great deal of intra-California flying from each of them and serve many of them from other hubs as well.

Intra-California flying only:

SFO:
FAT, SNA, PSP, SMF, SAN, SBA, LAX, BFL, BUR, ACV, RDD, SBP, STS

LAX:
SAN, SFO, PSP, SMF, SBP, SBA

RyanairGuru · Sun Oct 22, 2017 4:39 am

FlyDeltaJets wrote:
I would like to see the stats that back up the claim that Southwest is #1 in California

United not only has 2 hubs in California they also do a great deal of intra-California flying from each of them and serve many of them from other hubs as well.

Intra-California flying only:

SFO:
FAT, SNA, PSP, SMF, SAN, SBA, LAX, BFL, BUR, ACV, RDD, SBP, STS

LAX:
SAN, SFO, PSP, SMF, SBP, SBA

You raise good points, the more I think about it the more I think this includes mainline only, with es h regional being counted separately. Needless to say this plays into WN being over repesented.

I have no doubt that WN is the largest intra-CA carrier, but by either ASMs or simply number of seats I can't imagine a scenario that UA isn't the largest in Cali (at least including regional partners)

Keith2004 · Sun Oct 22, 2017 4:52 am

ElroyJetson wrote:
I am aware of IAD, but UA hard a fairly small presence in the rest of the Virginia. DL is by far the largest carrier at ORF and RIC and those are not small airports.

DCA is also in Virginia, if United somehow was not #1 it would be AS with their hub at DCA

ORF and RIC are distant 3rd/4ths to DCA/IAD

Chemist · Sun Oct 22, 2017 5:46 am

RyanairGuru wrote:
FlyDeltaJets wrote:
I would like to see the stats that back up the claim that Southwest is #1 in California

United not only has 2 hubs in California they also do a great deal of intra-California flying from each of them and serve many of them from other hubs as well.

Intra-California flying only:

SFO:
FAT, SNA, PSP, SMF, SAN, SBA, LAX, BFL, BUR, ACV, RDD, SBP, STS

LAX:
SAN, SFO, PSP, SMF, SBP, SBA

You raise good points, the more I think about it the more I think this includes mainline only, with es h regional being counted separately. Needless to say this plays into WN being over repesented.

I have no doubt that WN is the largest intra-CA carrier, but by either ASMs or simply number of seats I can't imagine a scenario that UA isn't the largest in Cali (at least including regional partners)

Yes but Southwest has huge frequencies between Bay Area-LA Area pairs and their flights are usually mostly full. The UA to little airports are normally regional, correct? And what 1-3 flights/day max? That isn't really a lot of passengers.

FlyDeltaJets · Sun Oct 22, 2017 6:18 am

Chemist wrote:
RyanairGuru wrote:
FlyDeltaJets wrote:
I would like to see the stats that back up the claim that Southwest is #1 in California

United not only has 2 hubs in California they also do a great deal of intra-California flying from each of them and serve many of them from other hubs as well.

Intra-California flying only:

SFO:
FAT, SNA, PSP, SMF, SAN, SBA, LAX, BFL, BUR, ACV, RDD, SBP, STS

LAX:
SAN, SFO, PSP, SMF, SBP, SBA

You raise good points, the more I think about it the more I think this includes mainline only, with es h regional being counted separately. Needless to say this plays into WN being over repesented.

I have no doubt that WN is the largest intra-CA carrier, but by either ASMs or simply number of seats I can't imagine a scenario that UA isn't the largest in Cali (at least including regional partners)

Yes but Southwest has huge frequencies between Bay Area-LA Area pairs and their flights are usually mostly full. The UA to little airports are normally regional, correct? And what 1-3 flights/day max? That isn't really a lot of passengers.

SFO-ACV - 4 times a day mixture of 50 and 76 seat RJs
SFO-BFL - 2 times a day with 50 seat RJs
SFO-BUR - 6 times a day with mixture of mainline and 76 seat RJs
SFO-FAT - 4 times a day with mixture of mainline and 76 seat RJs
SFO-LAX - 15 times a day - 14 mainline 1 76 seat RJ
SFO-MRY (not in earlier list) - 2 times a day, 50 seat RJ
SFO-ONT - 7 times a day - 50 seat RJs and 1 76 seat RJ
SFO-SAN - 20 times a day - all mainline
SFO - SBA - 7 times a day - 1 mainline, mixture of 76 and 50 seat RJs
SFO-SBP - 4 times a day - 50 seat RJs
SFO - SMF - 5 times a day - 1 mainline, 4 76 seat RJs
SFO-SNA - 7 times a day - 6 mainline, 1 76 seat RJ
SFO - STS - 3 times a day - 50 seat RJs

86 flights a day from 1 hub to a variety of cities in California.

767333ER · Sun Oct 22, 2017 6:42 am

ElroyJetson wrote:
I am aware of IAD, but UA hard a fairly small presence in the rest of the Virginia. DL is by far the largest carrier at ORF and RIC and those are not small airports.

Airline traffic has a fairly small presence in the rest of Virginia’s airports compared to IAD. There is DCA as well, but other than that there’s Norfolk, Richmond, and Roanoke and those have service from connector carriers under all of the big 3 brands. United’s prescence at IAD is something no one else has in Virginia.

ericm2031 · Sun Oct 22, 2017 7:04 am

FlyDeltaJets wrote:
I would like to see the stats that back up the claim that Southwest is #1 in California

United not only has 2 hubs in California they also do a great deal of intra-California flying from each of them and serve many of them from other hubs as well.

Intra-California flying only:

SFO:
FAT, SNA, PSP, SMF, SAN, SBA, LAX, BFL, BUR, ACV, RDD, SBP, STS

LAX:
SAN, SFO, PSP, SMF, SBP, SBA

UA has ~300 flights at SFO and ~150 at LAX for a total of 450 daily flights. Seat numbers total about 65k.

WN has ~130 each at OAK and LAX, ~115 at SAN, ~90 at SJC, ~80 at SMF for a total of 550. That doesn't even include SFO, BUR, SNA, LGB, ONT as well as the recent CA buildup. Assuming those 550 are on 737-700's that's 78k...but the actual numbers are higher with -800's on many routes.

Number of flights and seat numbers are overwhelmingly higher than UA.

RyanairGuru · Sun Oct 22, 2017 7:10 am

ericm2031 wrote:
FlyDeltaJets wrote:
I would like to see the stats that back up the claim that Southwest is #1 in California

United not only has 2 hubs in California they also do a great deal of intra-California flying from each of them and serve many of them from other hubs as well.

Intra-California flying only:

SFO:
FAT, SNA, PSP, SMF, SAN, SBA, LAX, BFL, BUR, ACV, RDD, SBP, STS

LAX:
SAN, SFO, PSP, SMF, SBP, SBA

UA has ~300 flights at SFO and ~150 at LAX for a total of 450 daily flights.

WN has ~130 each at OAK and LAX, ~115 at SAN, ~90 at SJC, ~80 at SMF for a total of 550. That doesn't even include SFO, BUR, SNA, LGB, ONT as well as the recent CA buildup. Number of flights alone is overwhelmingly higher than UA.

Number of flights is not meaningful, ignoring the fact that you didn't include UA at SAN. As I said, I don't doubt that WN is the largest intra-state carrier, but I can't see how UA isn't larger overall.

ericm2031 · Sun Oct 22, 2017 7:35 am

RyanairGuru wrote:
ericm2031 wrote:
FlyDeltaJets wrote:
I would like to see the stats that back up the claim that Southwest is #1 in California

United not only has 2 hubs in California they also do a great deal of intra-California flying from each of them and serve many of them from other hubs as well.

Intra-California flying only:

SFO:
FAT, SNA, PSP, SMF, SAN, SBA, LAX, BFL, BUR, ACV, RDD, SBP, STS

LAX:
SAN, SFO, PSP, SMF, SBP, SBA

UA has ~300 flights at SFO and ~150 at LAX for a total of 450 daily flights.

WN has ~130 each at OAK and LAX, ~115 at SAN, ~90 at SJC, ~80 at SMF for a total of 550. That doesn't even include SFO, BUR, SNA, LGB, ONT as well as the recent CA buildup. Number of flights alone is overwhelmingly higher than UA.

Number of flights is not meaningful, ignoring the fact that you didn't include UA at SAN. As I said, I don't doubt that WN is the largest intra-state carrier, but I can't see how UA isn't larger overall.

Using tomorrow's numbers:

FAT-11 flights, 731 seats
SNA-18 flights, 2474 seats
PSP-9 flights, 888 seats
SMF-19 flights, 2273 seats
SAN-35 flights, 5314 seats
SBA-12 flights, 834 seats
LAX-139 flights, 19499 seats
BFL-3 flights, 150 seats
BUR-7 flights, 712 seats
ACV-4, 252 seats
RDD-3 flights, 170 seats
SBP-9 flights, 450 seats
STS-3 flights, 150 seats
SFO-294, 43912 seats

Total: 566 flights, 77810 seats

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