# What's the biggest airline to have no flights going to/from/through the USA? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 31, 2022, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712 "2022-01-31T23:41:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712/1 "2022-01-31T23:41:01Z")
This is trivial enough that it could have gone into MPSIMS, but I’m trying to find the answer to it: What is the biggest airline in the world that runs no flight operations involving the USA at all? (no flights to, or from, or through.) ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2022, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712/2 "2022-01-31T23:45:21Z")
Iran Air is my guess. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712/3 "2022-02-01T00:26:38Z")
Largest by passengers, I’m guessing Ryanair. They seem to be the fifth in the world by that metric and do not fly to the States. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712/4 "2022-02-01T00:28:36Z")
Interesting, thanks. Any big central/south American carriers? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712/5 "2022-02-01T01:29:13Z")
Ryanair is also pretty big in terms of fleet size, with 250 aircraft. Easyjet is another big European airline that doesn’t fly to the US (151 aircraft). They advertise and sell tickets to the US and Canada, but it’s always via another carrier with a connecting flight somewhere in Europe. Fun fact: Southwest does not serve Canada. They would like to and eventually will, but the current obstacle is that regulations require tickets sold in Canada to be priced in Canadian dollars, and their system can’t handle that! ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712/6 "2022-02-01T13:06:02Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Any big central/south American carriers? The largest airline on [this list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_airlines_in_South_America) that doesn’t serve the US is [Sky Airline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Airline), based in Chile. In 2019 (before the Recent Unpleasantness), it carried 5.76 million passengers. For comparison, RyanAir carried over 150 million passengers in the same year. South America doesn’t have a lot of air traffic to begin with, though. Even the largest South American carrier, LATAM, “only” carried about 75 million passengers in 2019. The market is smaller and poorer than North America, Europe, or East Asia; and given the region’s historic and economic ties to North America, any South American carrier who wants to operate intercontinental flights will probably start flying to the USA before anywhere else. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712/7 "2022-02-02T00:34:56Z")
It depends on how you measure the “size” of an airline, which isn’t as straightforward as you might think. The number of passengers carried is one common measurement, but you could also measure the number of planes in their fleet. Another common measurement is “revenue passenger miles” which not only counts how many passengers an airline carries, but how far they carry them, and gives you a better picture of how much of the world an airline covers. By that measure Ryanair would be somewhat smaller since they only fly within Europe. ETA: I just looked at Wikipedia; it looks like even by “scheduled passenger kilometers”, a slightly different but similar metric, Ryanair is still the 7th biggest. So it looks like the answer is still Ryanair even by that metric. > [@wolfpup](#): > > Fun fact: Southwest does not serve Canada. They would like to and eventually will, but the current obstacle is that regulations require tickets sold in Canada to be priced in Canadian dollars, and their system can’t handle that! Related fun fact: Back when most airlines were introducing checked baggage fees a little over a decade ago, Southwest was using such an antiquated computer system, it couldn’t handle bag fees. So they spun it as a positive thing and started advertising that they didn’t charge for bags. I was under the impression that after they merged with AirTran they switched over to their system, which I would have thought would be able to handle foreign currencies. They did start flying to Mexico and the Caribbean after the merger; before that they didn’t fly internationally at all (And I’m pretty sure their old system couldn’t handle international flights at all). ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712/8 "2022-02-02T01:00:56Z")
They do fly to Mexico and the Caribbean, but my understanding is that they only price in US dollars. By far most of the passengers on those flights are American, so it’s not a big deal. Trans border flights to/from Canada, on the other hand, is mostly Canadians. So those flights need to be priced in both currencies to be successful. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712/9 "2022-02-02T02:41:53Z")
Garuda (Indonesia) has 102 planes , carriex 38 million passengers in 2018 and does not fly to the US , although they have a code share arrangement with Delta through skyteam. I don’t think Lion air flys to the US they have 119 aircraft and and 36 million pas se nears in 3018 apparently. ---
**Author:** ![hellasketchy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f17d59/32.png) [@hellasketchy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellasketchy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712/10 "2022-02-04T11:21:53Z")
Rumor is that Southwest was also unable to offer red-eye flights (such as flights from Hawaii) until recently because their legacy IT systems couldn’t handle overnight flights. [https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1416687&p=21152189&hilit=swift+southwest+"red+eye"#p21152189](https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1416687&p=21152189&hilit=swift+southwest+%22red+eye%22#p21152189) ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712/11 "2022-02-04T11:40:46Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Ryanair is also pretty big in terms of fleet size, with 250 aircraft. It’s a bit more than that. Over 400 aircraft for summer 2022, plus another 100 or so for their subsidiaries. > **[Our Fleet | Ryanair's Corporate Website](https://corporate.ryanair.com/about-us/our-fleet/)** ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712/12 "2022-05-03T21:09:36Z")
The Russian airline Aeroflot cannot enter US airspace anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2022, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-airline-to-have-no-flights-going-to-from-through-the-usa/958712/13 "2022-05-04T09:30:08Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > By that measure Ryanair would be somewhat smaller since they only fly within Europe. (nitpick) With a few exceptions at the edges. We used Ryanair for a flight from mainland Europe to Morocco a few months ago, for example. (/nitpick)