Southwest beats out American, becomes US' largest carrier

[nwafan20]

Southwest becomes top U.S. carrier
Southwest Airlines flew the most passengers of any U.S. airline in August, the latest month for which data is available from the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The carrier flew 8.7 million passengers for the month, according to the Chicago Tribune/Bloomberg (free registration). "The total includes domestic and international passengers. Southwest, which doesn't offer international flights, previously had ranked No. 1 in domestic passengers, but this is the first time it topped the list for total passengers," observes The Arizona Republic. The Pacific Business News of Honolulu called the development a "a sign of the ascendancy of the discount carriers" in the USA. As noted in this Today in the Sky post from November 2004, Southwest overtook all airlines for the lead in domestic passengers in May 2004. As for the August numbers, the next largest airlines -– as measured by the number of passengers boarded in August –- were American, United, Delta, Northwest, Continental and US Airways.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/2006/11/s ... becom.html

[N790SW]

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!! =]

[nwafan20]

Wasn't Amerian also the largest carrier in the world?

If WN beat them, would this make WN the biggest airline in the world?

[Nonstop2AUH]

Very cool. I am not much of a fan of LCCs as a consumer but as an investor, this further proves my theory that as Americans get increasingly squeezed and as services get increasingly commoditized, the lowest cost provider of the most generic service with economies of scale will be the long-term winner. Wal-Mart, Southwest, etc. you can apply the theory to almost any business I think.

[Winglets747]

Wasn't Amerian also the largest carrier in the world?

If WN beat them, would this make WN the biggest airline in the world?

Depends on the criteria. AA is usually referenced as the largest airline in the world by fleet. The second largest (by fleet) is FedEx.

-Will