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Airlines

Passenger and cargo airlines.

Companies
22
With a moat
23%
Average quality
25
0 wide moat · 5 narrow moat · 17 no moat · Open in screener →
Updated 27 Sep 2026

Airlines covers passenger and cargo airlines. MoatScope covers 21 companies here. None has a wide moat; five have a narrow moat and 16 none.

How the industry makes money

Airlines earn on filling seats at good fares, and the largest earn increasingly from loyalty programs and premium cabins. Fuel and labor are the biggest costs, and aircraft are expensive to own.

Where the moats are

Moats are narrow at best: loyalty programs, airport slots and low-cost operations help a few airlines, but capacity is easy to add and customers shop on price.

The narrow-moat group is Ryanair, Delta, United, Copa and SkyWest. Southwest, American Airlines and Volaris carry no moat, and the industry averages 25 on MoatScope's quality scale.

What wears moats down

Fuel prices, labor contracts, economic downturns and shocks such as pandemics can wipe out profits, and new capacity quickly drives fares down.

What to watch

  • Fares and capacity growth.
  • Fuel and labor costs.
  • Loyalty-program and premium-cabin revenue.

Moat ratings and quality scores on this page update as companies report. Price versus fair value for every company in the industry is in the screener.

Markets

MoatScope splits Airlines into 2 markets. Each table ranks the businesses in one market by revenue and shows each one's share of the market's total: companies filed under this industry, the segments of companies filed elsewhere that compete in it, and the largest companies MoatScope doesn't cover, such as private companies and companies listed outside the US. Each market's total comes from a cited source and covers the geography its businesses compete in (a national market counts only US revenue). A company that runs several businesses is split by the segments it reports.

US airlines

Passenger and cargo airlines based in the US.

US market · $291.6B total revenue in 2025 · source: US Census Bureau Quarterly Services Survey. Shares are of the whole market, including companies MoatScope doesn't cover; company revenue is for the fiscal year closest to 2025. US air transportation revenue (Census).

#BusinessMarket shareRevenue
1DAL · DELTA AIR LINES, INC.21.7%$63.4B
2UAL · United Airlines Holdings, Inc.20.3%$59.1B
3AAL · American Airlines Group Inc.18.7%$54.6B
4LUV · SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO9.6%$28.1B
5ALK · ALASKA AIR GROUP, INC.4.9%$14.2B
6JBLU · JETBLUE AIRWAYS CORP3.1%$9.1B
7SKYW · SKYWEST INC1.4%$4.1B
8ULCC · Frontier Group Holdings, Inc.1.3%$3.7B
9Spirit Airlines
Private · Wikipedia
1.3%$3.7B
10ALGT · Allegiant Travel CO0.9%$2.6B
All other companies15.7%$45.9B

International airlines

Airlines based outside the US, each competing mainly in its own region.

4 businesses MoatScope covers, ranked by revenue. These companies compete in different national markets, so there's no single market to take a share of. These airlines compete in their own regions, so there's no single market to take a share of.

#BusinessRevenue
1RYAAY · RYANAIR HOLDINGS PLC$15.1B
2LTM · LATAM AIRLINES GROUP S.A.$14.3B
3AZUL · AZUL SA$3.7B
4CPA · Copa Holdings, S.A.$3.6B

Companies

CompanyMoatQualityMarket
DAL
DELTA AIR LINES, INC.
Narrow44US airlines21.7%$49.1B
UAL
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.
Narrow32US airlines20.3%$31.0B
RYAAY
RYANAIR HOLDINGS PLC
Narrow46International airlines—$27.4B
LUV
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO
None16US airlines9.6%$19.0B
LTM
LATAM AIRLINES GROUP S.A.
None36International airlines—$13.6B
AAL
American Airlines Group Inc.
None20US airlines18.7%$7.7B
VLRS
Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion, S.A.B. de C.V.
None35US airlines—$6.8B
CPA
Copa Holdings, S.A.
Narrow58International airlines—$5.5B
ALK
ALASKA AIR GROUP, INC.
None25US airlines4.9%$3.8B
SKYW
SKYWEST INC
Narrow44US airlines1.4%$3.5B
ALGT
Allegiant Travel CO
None14US airlines0.9%$1.8B
JBLU
JETBLUE AIRWAYS CORP
None14US airlines3.1%$1.1B
ULCC
Frontier Group Holdings, Inc.
None19US airlines1.3%$1.1B
RJET
REPUBLIC AIRWAYS HOLDINGS INC.
None19US airlines0.6%$751M
AZUL
AZUL SA
None26International airlines—$712M
UP
Wheels Up Experience Inc.
None9US airlines0.2%$117M
FLYX
FLYEXCLUSIVE INC.
None9US airlines0.1%$112M
SRFM
SURF AIR MOBILITY INC.
None15US airlines<0.1%$65M
FJET
Starfighters Space, Inc.
None14US airlines—$58M
JETMF
Global Crossing Airlines Group Inc.
None17US airlines<0.1%$39M
SOAR
Volato Group, Inc.
None22US airlines<0.1%$13M
JTAI
Jet.AI Inc.
None20US airlines<0.1%$4M

22 companies.

Market share is a company's revenue in its main market (Market column) as a share of that market's total: every company in it, including private companies and companies listed outside the US (sources under each market above). Revenue is for the fiscal year closest to 2025, and a market that is national (such as US banking) counts only US revenue. Companies that run several businesses are split by the segments they report, and each segment counts in its own market. A dash means the market has no reliable total yet, or no revenue was reported for that year.

Price versus fair value for every company is in the screener.

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