Airlines That Experienced Biggest Increases in Revenue and Traffic in 2022

The recently released Big Book of Travel Data 2023 provided a variety of unique looks at the travel industry and each of its sectors. The overarching takeaway of the report is that the travel industry experienced significant recovery in 2022.

As part of that assessment, the report, which was produced by travel insurer Allianz in partnership with IdeaWorksCompany, included a very deep dive into the global airline industry, including its traffic worldwide and regionally, and the growth of specific airlines and their revenue.

This significant collection of airline-related data includes a breakdown of the airlines that experienced the most significant growth in revenue between 2021 and 2022 as the industry began to recover from the pandemic-driven downturn. The airlines that made the top 10 in revenue growth for 2022 aren’t exactly household names, at least not in the United States.

Top 10 airlines by revenue increase between 2021 and 2022

HK Express: +3360%
ITA Airways: +1651%
Play: +751.2%
Breeze Airways: +650%
AirAsia Aviation Group: +512.4%
Thai Airways International: +381.5%
Starlux: +322.4%
jet2.com: +308.7%
easyJet: +295.7%
TUI Group: +260.5%

When the data is sorted by percentage of traffic increase between 2021 and 2022, the airlines that land in the top 10 are still primarily those based in Asia, according to the report.

Top 10 airlines by percentage of traffic increase between 2021 and 2022

HK Express: +3825%
SriLankan Airlines: +779%
China Airlines: +768.4%
Starlux: +695.6%
Play: +680.9%
ITA Airways: +676.9%
EVA Air Group: +653.8%
Malaysia Airlines: +468.4%
Thai Airways International: +449.4%
AirAsia Aviation Group: +403.9%

Regional Growth and Recovery

The report also looks at how the airline industry fared by region in terms of revenue gains. And it seems the most significant recovery when looked at this way took place in Europe.

“In the airline industry, Europe strongly led the way with a 2022 year-over-year
revenue increase in excess of 154 percent,” says the report.

Following behind Europe’s revenue increase, the regions of the world ranked as follows:

-Middle East & Africa: 73.5 percent revenue increase
-Latin America: 70.7 percent revenue increase
-Asia & South Pacific: 69.9 percent revenue increase
-US & Canada: 73.6 percent revenue increase

“This is a stunning result for Europe, which has endured the effects of Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine and the economic pressures created by higher fuel costs on the
economy and especially the airline business,” continues the report. “There was simply a bubble of demand as intra-Europe tourism rebounded.”

But good times were not felt in China during 2022, with its economy and travel industry struggling with the residual effects of the pandemic.

Here are 2022 year-over-year traffic results for China’s largest four carrier groups:

– China Southern Group: 13.8% traffic decrease.
-China Eastern Group: 11.9% traffic decrease.
-Air China Group: 10.3% traffic decrease.
-Hainan Airlines Holding: 6.3% traffic decrease.

The world’s air alliances, meanwhile, gained market share during 2022 by adding a whopping 422 million passengers compared to 2021 results.

Oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star are now estimated to capture 46 percent of global passengers, up from 41 percent for 2021, says the report.

Star is the largest alliance with 576.2 million passengers which is nearly 20 percent of global passenger traffic.

Low cost carriers also continued steady market share gains and carried 31.3 percent of
worldwide passengers, which is a meaningful increase above the 2021 share of 26.8
percent, the report adds.

Ryanair is the world’s largest low-cost carrier at the moment with 168.6 million passengers carried in 2022. Indigo is second with 85.3 million passengers.