Overview of the global commercial fleet
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By Antoine Fafard
Extract from the Commercial Fleet Report 2009 now available for FREE
North America continues to dominate in terms of the sheer size of its active fleet with 36% of the world’s in-service airliners, followed by Europe (26%) and Asia-Pacific (21%). In particular, North America continues to account for 60% of regional jets, although the Asia-Pacific region leads in widebodies taking a third of the world’s active fleet.
In terms of manufacturers, Boeing leads with some 56% of the world’s in-service fleet of mainline airliners, followed by Airbus with just over a third. The regional jet market is narrowly led by Bombardier’s CRJ fleet, but closely followed by Embraer. The Dash 8 also gives Bombardier a leading edge in the small but heavily contested turboprop market, with a 16% share.
Among operators, Federal Express is the clear widebody leader with a fleet of 270 aircraft, which alone represents nearly a quarter of the North American fleet. However, at an average age of 16 years, the region’s widebodies are among the world’s oldest. By contrast the Asia-Pacific fleet averages an age of only 10 years, while the growth spree from Qatar’s up-andcoming flag-carrier gives the country’s widebody an average of only four years.
In the narrowbody sector, the US majors are clear leaders, led by Southwest Airlines with a world-beating fleet of over 500 aircraft - larger than the entire fleet in Africa or the Middle East. Low-cost also leads in Europe with Ryanair and easyJet climbing ahead of established majors such as Air France and Lufthansa, although the combined Air France-KLM fleet would be larger. However, China’s young and growing narrowbody fleet now numbers over 1,000 aircraft.
US carriers also top the regional jet league with the top three - ExpressJet, SkyWest Airlines and American Eagle - together operating around 20% of the world’s entire fleet. North American regionals also continue to operate the world’s largest turboprop fleet, with Ameriflight alone accounting for a huge active fleet of 128 aircraft.
| The Commercial Fleet Report 2009 provides a snapshot of the active air transport fleet as it stood at 1 May 2009. The analysis focuses on western-built airliners, including freighters. |
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