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Countries by Airline Passengers

Name the countries whose airlines carried the most passengers in 2016.
Growth = % growth since 2000
Quiz by relessness
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Last updated: November 14, 2018
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First submittedJuly 1, 2013
Times taken40,559
Average score85.0%
Rating4.93
3:30
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#
Growth
Country
823 m
24%
United States
531 m
596%
China
145 m
106%
United Kingdom
126 m
799%
Ireland
125 m
115%
Germany
120 m
591%
India
118 m
8%
Japan
100 m
723%
Turkey
96.5 m
873%
Indonesia
94.1 m
201%
Brazil
#
Growth
Country
92.2 m
1237%
United Arab Emirates
85.4 m
105%
Canada
77.5 m
338%
Russia
77.1 m
125%
South Korea
72.6 m
123%
Australia
66.7 m
68%
Spain
65.4 m
24%
France
60.5 m
248%
Thailand
53.8 m
225%
Malaysia
53.3 m
155%
Mexico
+13
Level ∞
Sep 11, 2017
The growth in air travel and tourism worldwide has been remarkable. I think it will cause more disruptions moving forward as previously cool places are inundated with tourists. Many countries have seen tourism grow at an annual rate of 10% or more for over two decades. Of course, I'm a tourist too so I can't complain - I just want other people to stay home. :)
+6
Level 47
Sep 11, 2017
What's remarkable is that developed countries seem to have massive growth as well, apart from the US and Japan. I'm guessing the US is partly due to 9/11 and Japan due to its population decrease
+7
Level ∞
Sep 12, 2017
My guess is that deregulation happened earlier in the US. When it happened in the UK and Ireland, it allowed for the massive growth of budget airlines post 2000.
+3
Level 90
Sep 12, 2017
Yeah, there must be an out-of-the-ordinary explanation for Ireland. There hasn't been a massive population increase or anything else to explain 800% growth.
+18
Level 47
Sep 13, 2017
This data is done by airlines based in each country. Ireland can be explained by Ryanair. And thinking about it easyJet can probably partly explain the UK's growth.
+1
Level 37
Dec 16, 2017
@tschutzer like relessness said, ryanair is nearly as big as delta and it was founded in Ireland, it stretches all around the globe, youd be lucky to find a european airport without a ryanair flight
+1
Level 37
May 5, 2020
We don't need to explain Ireland's growth if it's in Europe. That's the explanation right there
+6
Level 82
Sep 28, 2019
We just need fewer people, period. Thanos 2020.
+12
Level 93
Aug 22, 2020
My god this comment did NOT age well! Lol
+2
Level 92
Sep 2, 2020
Really? In the midst of the current pandemic, I still found it funny.
+2
Level 82
Jan 27, 2022
If inevitable evil won't kill off half the population then I guess we'll have to settle for callous stupidity. Sure.
+8
Level 59
Sep 12, 2017
Who says global warming is a conspiracy? That's just caused by human factors, like travelling by air so many times.
+2
Level 50
Jun 27, 2018
Palm oil production also causes global warming on a massive scale. Don't buy any product that contains it!
+2
Level 76
Sep 13, 2017
Wow, never would have guessed Ireland would be so high. That's amazing for such a small country.
+15
Level 74
Sep 13, 2017
Ryan Air.
+6
Level 82
Sep 25, 2017
Yeah Ryanair. Most of Europe is one market but still divided into countries. Ryanair is a pan-European airline with hubs all over, but based in Ireland, so all the passengers are counted there, regardless of their passports and route.

I don't know where the major US airlines are headquartered, but you would probably get similarly surprising results if you used the same method for counting passengers "per state".

+2
Level 62
Sep 2, 2019
Yes I would imagine that Texas (American), Illinois (United) and Georgia (Delta) would be by far the highest. You’re right, though, the growth of easyJet and Ryanair has had an immense impact on passenger figures for the UK and Ireland. I would imagine Norwegian Airlines have had a big impact on Norway’s figures also.
+1
Level 58
Dec 16, 2017
Please please please restrict the percentile % to those who have completed the quiz 3 times or less , the stats are clearly skewed in the Geography category by those who are taking the test and scoring 100 percent tens and twenty and thirty times , THERE is NO possibility a first time score of 17 of Twenty would merit a 20 percentile unless the scenario i just described is rampant
+15
Level 77
Dec 16, 2017
I'm almost positive that the first time is the only one that goes towards the percentage. A lot of people on this site just know geography very well.
+7
Level 56
Dec 16, 2017
Only the first attempt of a quiz is counted in the percentages. On Jetpunk, there's a huge amount of geography nerds. Or maybe people simply type a lot of somewhat likely countries really fast.
+4
Level 84
Jan 10, 2018
Why would someone sit and take this quiz 10, 20, 30 times? And why do you care?
+3
Level 66
Feb 18, 2020
Only the first time counts. That goes for all the quizzes on this site. For this one you dont need to know much about geography. All the answers are very well known countries (perhaps UAE less so but every 8 year old will know the others) and they are rather logical guesses. Guess the big ones and the ones with a good economy and voila.
+1
Level 49
Sep 17, 2020
The UAE is in many ways quite obvious given Emirates and Etihad. The two less intuitive ones are the two other smallest (by population) countries on the list - Ireland and Malaysia. As others have said, these are easily explained by the massive LCCs headquartered in each - Ryanair and Air Asia
+1
Level 39
Dec 16, 2017
How is Ireland able to make this list?
+1
Level 56
Dec 16, 2017
That surprised me too. I missed two countries and Ireland was one of them. Shocked to see them ahead of Germany and Japan. Everyone in the country must fly several times to and from the UK each year.
+6
Level 70
Dec 16, 2017
I think it's because it's not the flights to and from the country - it's the flights made by the airlines based in the country. Ireland has basically one big airline - Ryanair - which makes loads of flights in and between other countries.
+1
Level 82
Dec 17, 2017
Indeed, a domestic Ryanair flight in Italy counts to Ireland numbers above.
+2
Level 60
Dec 16, 2017
Shocked too see the growth rate of UAE !
+2
Level 37
Dec 16, 2017
UAE has Dubai, and Dubai International Airport is now the world's number one in International Passenger travel category.
+3
Level 47
Dec 16, 2017
Emirates and Etihad probably the main two reasons for the growth
+1
Level 74
Dec 16, 2017
The source unforntunately lacks the data for Norway, Sweden and Denmark. SAS with 29.4 M and Norwegian with 29.3 M passengers in 2016 are thrown in the mix. However their legal domiciles may not be entirely clear. Norway could get both allocations and make the list. :)
+1
Level 71
Dec 16, 2017
This is a list of Airlines not of travel in/out of the country where the Airline is registered. e.g. here in Australia if I fly Lufthansa to Hong Kong it is Germany that gets registered in this quiz.
+1
Level 47
Dec 17, 2017
Totally forgot about Ryanair
+1
Level 62
Jan 18, 2019
Amazing how Ireland, a country with 5 million, is up there with the USA, China and the UK, just because of one airline.
+1
Level 35
Apr 29, 2019
Got all but one. Figured islands would have a lot of airline passengers.
+1
Level 62
Oct 11, 2019
Shocked to see malaysia on the list. I wouldn’t fly with them if my life depended on it
+2
Level 49
Sep 17, 2020
It's Air Asia that's the key driver behind the Malaysia figure, not Malaysia Airlines. Though the latter in my experience is very safety conscious: the Ukraine incident was a wrong place / wrong time issue that isn't their fault; the missing mystery plane may have been their fault but we shall never know!
+1
Level 79
Feb 18, 2021
There's nothing wrong with Malaysian airlines. Being a Malaysian I've flown with them dozens and dozens of times.
+1
Level 62
Apr 2, 2020
The high figure for Malaysia is because of Air Asia.
+1
Level 59
Nov 11, 2020
bro how is ireland so high
+1
Level 75
Mar 7, 2021
Look up ⬆️
+1
Level 79
Feb 18, 2021
I'm from the least guessed country :/
+1
Level 40
Jul 28, 2021
Hello Malaysian!
+1
Level 40
Mar 14, 2021
I got it all right! I almost forgot about South Korea. No one forgot USA!
+2
Level 68
Oct 1, 2021
Hmm, I wonder what is a country with 126 million passengers, and has had a 799% growth since 2000?

I know!

North Korea-

+1
Level 64
Apr 11, 2023
It does not make any sense to have Ireland fourth on this list. In fact, the EU operates as a single country. According to the "freedoms of the air" established by the International Air Services Transit Agreement (IASTA), European airlines are generally allowed to operate freely within the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA) without any restrictions on routes, frequencies, or fares. I would concentrate all EU countries in one, and make this quiz as "single skies" rather than "countries". Something similar may happen soon when SAATM will be operative in Africa.
+2
Level 55
Jul 28, 2023
tf is Ireland doing?? They literally got 5 million people.
+1
Level 57
Sep 18, 2023
Ryanair.