10 Largest Airlines in Asia by Passengers Carried
In Asia, “biggest airline” can mean many things, but passengers carried is the simplest indicator of real-world demand. It also maps closely to what travellers feel on the ground, from airport congestion to flight frequency.
This list sticks to one metric, passengers carried, and one reporting year, using the latest full-year 2024 figures airlines and regulators have published.
Why This Matters in Asia
Passenger scale shapes where new routes open first, and where price wars break out.
For airport operators, airline passenger volume is a practical proxy for gate demand, peak-hour pressure, and the need for transfer infrastructure. For travellers, it usually correlates with frequency, schedule resilience, and the odds you can be rebooked quickly when disruptions hit.
If you are benchmarking hubs, start with our explainer on How Asia’s Airport Hubs Actually Work.
The Moving Parts People Miss
Two airlines can both report “100 million passengers” and still be very different businesses.
Domestic-heavy carriers rack up high passenger counts with short flights and fast aircraft utilisation. Hub-and-spoke long-haul airlines can move fewer passengers but generate more passenger kilometres and often more premium revenue per customer.
Corporate structure also matters. Some figures are reported at group level, which can include multiple airlines under one holding company, sometimes spanning short-haul and long-haul units.
Finally, not every carrier reports on a strict January to December calendar. Where an airline reports on an April to March financial year, this article uses that full-year figure, and labels it clearly in the table.
The Operator Checklist Before You Compare Airlines
Use this quick checklist before you treat any ranking as definitive.
- Confirm the metric, passengers carried, not seats, capacity, or passenger kilometres.
- Confirm the period, calendar year 2024 or the carrier’s FY2023/24 ending in 2024.
- Check group scope, whether subsidiaries are included in the passenger count.
- Align fleet definitions, “active” vs “total”, passenger aircraft vs freighters.
- Read hubs as a network strategy, one mega-hub behaves very differently to many bases.
Top 10 Largest Airlines in Asia by Passengers Carried
Figures are shown in millions, rounded, and the reporting period is noted where it is not a calendar year.
| Rank | Airline | Passengers Carried | Fleet | Main Hub(s) | Network Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China Southern Airlines | 164.8 (CY2024) | 684 aircraft (fleet database), group fleet reported as 900+ aircraft | Guangzhou (CAN) | Large domestic trunk routes, dense regional Asia, selective long-haul |
| 2 | Air China (group) | 152.1 (CY2024) | 532 aircraft (fleet database) | Beijing (PEK, PKX) | Flag-carrier long-haul plus heavy domestic connectivity |
| 3 | China Eastern Airlines (group) | 140.6 (CY2024) | 679 aircraft (fleet database) | Shanghai (PVG, SHA) | Domestic scale anchored to Shanghai, plus Asia-Pacific and long-haul |
| 4 | IndiGo | 106.4 (FY ended 31 Mar 2024) | 342 aircraft (passenger fleet listing) | Multi-base, led by Delhi (DEL) and Mumbai (BOM) | Low-cost, high-frequency domestic and short-haul international |
| 5 | Turkish Airlines | 83.4 (CY2024) | 492 aircraft (as of Dec 2024) | Istanbul (IST) | Hub-and-spoke transfer model linking Europe, Asia, Africa |
| 6 | AirAsia Aviation Group (Capital A) | 63.0+ (FY2024) | 224 total, 205 active (as of end 2024) | Kuala Lumpur (KUL) plus multiple Southeast Asia bases | Low-cost, short-haul volume, some long-haul via affiliated units |
| 7 | Aeroflot Group | 55.3 (CY2024) | 349 aircraft (as at end 2024) | Moscow (SVO) | Domestic scale and regional connectivity, constrained long-haul footprint |
| 8 | Emirates | 51.9 (FY2023/24, as reported) | 260 units (as at end of March, group disclosure) | Dubai (DXB) | All widebody, long-haul hub-and-spoke, high share of transfer traffic |
| 9 | Qatar Airways | 40.0+ (FY2023/24) | 230+ aircraft (public reporting) | Doha (DOH) | Long-haul connector, strong sixth-freedom flows |
| 10 | Singapore Airlines Group | 39.0 (CY2024) | 205 aircraft (operating fleet disclosure) | Singapore (SIN) | Premium long-haul plus short-haul scale via Scoot |
What Fleet, Hubs, and Network Focus Reveal
Fleet size alone does not explain passenger volume, but fleet mix often does.
The highest passenger carriers in Asia tend to be narrowbody-heavy, with quick turnarounds and dense domestic schedules. That structure favours very high passenger counts, even when the average trip length is short.
By contrast, the Gulf hub model concentrates flying through one airport, optimised for connections. It can deliver enormous global reach with fewer passengers than a domestic giant, because those passengers are spread across longer sectors and a higher share of premium cabins.
If you are planning routes, partnerships, or airport commercial strategy, treat “main hub” as a design choice. Multi-base low-cost airlines prioritise frequency and aircraft utilisation, while hub carriers prioritise wave banks and minimum connection times. For more on this trade-off, see A Practical Guide to Airline Network Models in Asia.
Common Traps, and How to Avoid Them
The fastest way to get misled is to mix passengers with capacity, or to compare calendar-year figures with financial-year figures without noticing. Always read the scope notes, especially for airline groups, and keep fleet definitions consistent, active vs total, passenger-only vs including freighters.
FAQ
Does “passengers carried” mean seats sold?
Not exactly. Passengers carried counts people flown, regardless of fare type, and it typically includes connecting passengers as separate travellers, not as “journeys”.
It is a useful volume indicator, but it does not describe yield, profitability, or how far those passengers travelled.
Why do some airlines use a financial year instead of calendar year?
Many airlines align reporting to their corporate financial year, often April to March in parts of Asia.
In rankings, the key is consistency. This article uses the latest full-year figures ending in 2024 and labels the reporting period in the table.
Are airline groups counted as one airline here?
Where a company reports passengers at a group or holding level, the table reflects that, and notes it as “group”.
This is common in China and in multi-airline low-cost structures, and it can materially change rankings if you compare them to single-airline disclosures.
What should travellers take from this list?
Big passenger numbers usually mean more frequencies and better rebooking options, but not always a better onboard product.
If your priority is disruption recovery, look for scale at your origin hub. If your priority is long-haul connectivity, hub-and-spoke carriers can offer more one-stop options even with lower passenger volume.