How do you make a million dollars running an airline? Start with two million.
That’s an old aviation joke, but it still rings true today. The pitfalls facing commercial airlines are many, often highlighted by bankruptcies and losses in the industry. Nevertheless, some of the world’s most profitable airlines are proving it doesn’t always have to be this way.
Globally, airlines run on wafer-thin profit margins. According to IATA, the average operating profit margin globally was around 6.4% in 2024. This year is projected to be an improvement, reaching an expected 6.7% average on revenues that are forecast to exceed a trillion dollars for the first time.
But some airlines are bucking this trend, proving it is possible to make money in the aviation business. 2024’s top 10 most profitable airlines alone brought in over $335 billion in revenue, earning more than $25 billion in profits. But which were the most profitable airlines over the last calendar year?
To establish the most profitable airlines in the world, we looked at annual reports from airline newsrooms worldwide. Although airlines like Qatar and Emirates work on an April to April financial year, we took figures for calendar year 2024 as that was the most complete data set.
By our calculations, the top 10 most profitable airlines in the world are:
But this list is not based on simply profits alone. Stay with us and we’ll explain more.
Most profitable airlines: The highest revenues in 2024
The ‘big three’ US airlines – Delta, United and American – dominate the highest revenue earners in 2024 thanks to record passenger traffic. TSA reported screening an unprecedented 904 million passengers last year, a 5% increase over 2023. Between these three airlines, total revenues exceeded $172 billion.
Following behind by quite some margin are the three big European aviation groups. Lufthansa Group, which includes SWISS, Austrian, Brussels Airlines and more, scored the highest revenue across the pond, wth just over $40 billion. IAG – the owner of British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, Vueling and LEVEL – was a few billion behind at $34.6 bn, while the Air France-KLM group brought in just short of $34 billion.
With $33 billion, Emirates earned the seventh highest revenue in 2024 – not an easy task when you only fly big jets over long distances. Southwest got a look in at eighth with $27.5 billion revenue, and two Chinese giants fought over ninth and tenth place with around $24 billion a piece.
But earning high revenues doesn’t necessarily make for a profitable airline.
Most profitable airlines: The highest profits in 2024
When it comes to net profits, Emirates wins the day. Its soaring 2024 profit of $4.7 billion has already been eclipsed in 2025, as it has reported record full financial year profits of $5.2 billion. The airline had such a good year, it has agreed to a 22-week profit share bonus for all its eligible employees.
Two of the US big three follow Emirates with solid profits, with Delta and United earning $3.46 bn and $3.15 bn respectively. But where is American Airlines, with its huge $54 billion revenue? In fact, its profits were relatively low, at just $850 million. The airline’s management has blamed this on costly labor deals.
Europe’s IAG comes next, with a solid $3 billion profit for the group. It’s followed by Turkish Airlines, which didn’t make it into the top 10 for revenue, with under $23 billion brought in. Nevertheless, the airline’s model of flying to more international destinations than any other is clearly working, as it secured a solid profit of $2.4 billion.
Low-cost legend Ryanair secures sixth place with just over $2 billion in earnings. Then we have another appearance that didn’t rank in the top revenue airlines: global carrier Singapore Airlines. Its profit of just over $2 billion claims it the seventh spot.
Rounding out the list, Air France-KLM and Qatar Airways both took home profits of $1.7 billion, while Lufthansa brought up the rear with a solid net profit of $1.51 billion.
However, even this ranking doesn’t tell the whole story. It’s far easier to turn a profit of $3.5 billion when your revenue is over $60 billion than it is to bring in a decent return on a smaller total revenue.
Most profitable airlines: The margin tells the whole story
Taking the airlines with the highest revenues and profits as a starting point, we can determine their operating margin by dividing the profit by the revenue and taking that as a percentage. This gives a far more accurate idea of the most profitable airlines, as it showcases their efficiency and ability to retain more of their revenue as income.
Although the ‘big three’ US airlines brought in far more revenue than any other carriers, their operating margins are woefully low. We’ve already mentioned American Airlines and its low profit generation – its operating margin was a measly 1.57%, far lower than the global average. Both Delta and United made it into the top 10 most profitable airlines based on operating margin, both running on margins of around 5.5%.
The real standouts on this list, however, are Emirates and Singapore Airlines, both securing an operating margin of over 14%. Emirates just squeaks into first place by 0.2%, but both airlines are clearly running a very efficient and effective operation.
Worth mentioning also is budget carrier Ryanair. To maintain an operating margin of 13.65%, when it runs its flights on a shoestring, is incredible. Southwest Airlines, the other budget carrier we’ve mentioned here, reported low profits of just $460 million, giving it a tight operating margin of 1.67%, so it didn’t make the list.
Likewise, the two Chinese airlines – Air China and China Southern – did not earn enough to secure a healthy operating margin. China Southern’s earnings were so low, its margin was just 1.1%, while Air China’s was even worse at 0.82%.
While Air France-KLM had some success with a margin of 5.1%, Lufthansa’s was lower at 3.73%, almost half the global average. In a year peppered with workers’ strikes and aircraft delivery delays, the airline has struggled to maintain profitability, although things were looking up during the first quarter of 2025.
Turkish Airlines’ margin of 10.6% is nothing to be sniffed at, while IAG and Qatar Airways both achieved better than the average, with 8.7% and 7.7% respectively.
According to Companies Market Cap, there are some airlines that are working on even larger profit margins. Bangkok Airways, Air Arabia and Copa all finished 2024 with operating margins of over 20%. Of these, the largest earner was Copa, with revenues of $3.43 billion and earnings of $0.72 billion.
Although these margins are certainly impressive, these airlines simply do not earn enough to make it into the top 10 list. However, they’re clearly doing something very right to buck the trend of wafer-thin margins within the aviation industry.
