Top 20 European Airlines by Fleet Size

Ryanair, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, leases 89 and owns 266 Boeing 737-800s. The airline also owns one Boeing 737-700.

British Airways, with its main hub at London Heathrow Airport and bases at Gatwick and London City airports, has a fleet of 268 aircraft, of which 133 are leased and 136 are owned.

Lufthansa, with its main hub at Frankfurt Airport, has 265 aircraft in its fleet, including 61 Airbus A320s, 44 A321-200s and 30 A319-100s.

EasyJet’s main hub is at London Gatwick Airport, and it operates over 820 routes to more than 30 countries. It has an all-Airbus fleet, with 85 leased and 48 owned A319-100s and 20 leased and 80 owned A320-200s.

Air France, with its main hub at the Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport, was formed in 1933 from the merger of Air Orient, Air Union, Compagnie Générale Aéropostale, Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne (CIDNA), and Société Générale de Transport Aérien (SGTA). Among its 226 aircraft, 151 are leased and 76 owned, two of which are in storage.

Scandinavian Airlines System’s (SAS) main hub is at Copenhagen Airport, and it also has hubs at Stockholm Arlanda Airport and Oslo Gardermoen Airport. Among its routes, the airline offers flights from Boston, New York, Washington, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco to 280 destinations in Scandinavia, Finland, Europe and Asia. Its fleet comprises 121 aircraft, 115 of them leased and six owned.

KLM was founded in 1919 to serve the Netherlands. Today, the airline’s main hub is at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. It has 117 aircraft in its fleet, 96 of which are leased and 21 owned, including 12 Boeing 747-400/SCD/F/BCFs.

Vueling Airlines’ main hub is at Barcelona-El Prat Airport in Spain. The 115 active aircraft in its fleet consist of 96 leased, including 81 Airbus A320-200s and 19 owned aircraft, including 15 Airbus A320-200s and four A321-200s.

Alitalia’s main hub is at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport; it also has a hub at Linate Airport in Milan. The airline flies to 27 destinations in Italy and 75 globally. Its fleet consists of 100 leased and nine aircraft owned.

Air Berlin’s hubs include the Dusseldorf Airport, Berline Tegel Airport and Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Air Berlin partners with Etihad Airways and code-shares with airlines including Air Sychelles, American Airlines, Bangkok Airways, British Airways and Japan Airlines. Air Berlin’s 97-aircraft fleet includes 76 leased and 21 owned aircraft.

Austrian Airlines, a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, has its main hub at Vienna International Airport. The airline offers direct flights from Vienna to cities including Bangkok, New Delhi, Mumbai, New York, Beijing, Tokyo and Toronto. The airline owns 57 and leases 28 aircraft, including 10 Embraer 195s.

Iberia, with its main hub at Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport in Spain, offers 19 direct flights to Latin American cities and another 99 cities through code-sharing with local carriers. Iberia leases 29 aircraft in service and two aircraft in storage and owns 49 aircraft in service and one Airbus A340-300, for a total of 81 aircraft.

Flybe, an independent regional airline in Europe, is headquartered in Exeter and has hubs at Birmingham Airport and Manchester Airport. In March, Flybe signed a code-share agreement with Virgin Atlantic. Its fleet of 78 aircraft includes 50 De Havilland DHC 8-400s and 11 Embraer 175s.

Norwegian Air Shuttle’s main hub is at Helsinki Airport in Vantaa, Finland. The low-cost carrier operates to more than 130 destinations in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Thailand, the Caribbean and the U.S. Its fleet consists of 71 leased aircraft and three Boeing 737-300s.

Wizz Air Hungary, founded in 2003, operates out of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport and offers 420 routes in Europe and globally. The carrier leases 63 Airbus A320-200s and three A321-200s and owns six A321-200s.

Thomson Airways’ main hub is located at London Luton Airport. It offers charter flights from the U.K. and Ireland to Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. It leases 62 aircraft, including 36 Boeing 737-800s, and owns one Boeing 757-200 and one 767-300ER.

TAP Air Portgual’s main hub and headquarters are located at Lisbon Airport. In 2006, TAP took over Varig Manutenção & Engenharia, the largest maintenance center in South America, then flew a record 47 weekly direct flights to Brazil. The all-Airbus carrier leases 59 aircraft and owns four.

Jet2’s main hub is at Leeds Bradford Airport in England. The British low-cost carrier flies to nine UK airports, including Belfast International, Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle. Its 63-aircraft fleet is all leased and includes 23 Boeing 737-800s and one Airbus A321-200.

Germanwings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa, has operating bases at Berlin Tegel Airport and Cologne Bonn Airport. Following its merger earlier this year with Eurowings, it will have a new base at Vienna International Airport. The carrier owns a total of 62 aircraft, 36 of them leased, and 26 Airbus A319-100s it owns.

Swiss International Air Lines, part of the Lufthansa Group, has its hub at Zürich Airpor. It leases 23 aircraft and owns 39, including 14 Airbus A330-300s and one A319-100.