The Data Drop
More than half the airlines ever created no longer exist.
Most didn't even last 12 years.
If you started an airline today, the odds say it won't exist by 2037. Fuel eats the margins. Debt kills the rest. And one bad year can end decades of flying overnight. Since 1919, we've watched it happen over and over.
KLM flies its first passengers between London and Amsterdam. Avianca launches in Colombia. Airlines aren't businesses yet. They're experiments.
Every country that matters wants its own airline. Pan Am connects continents. Qantas reaches the outback. A ticket costs a month's salary. Airlines are status symbols, not profit machines.
Propellers out. Jets in. Crossing an ocean takes hours, not days. Every newly independent nation launches a flag carrier. Africa and Asia light up for the first time.
The US kills all route and fare controls. Anyone can start an airline. People Express charges $19 to fly. Hundreds of startups pour in. This is when the dying starts.
The Soviet Union collapses. Every former republic launches an airline. Ryanair proves you can fly people for less than a pizza. 600 new airlines in one decade. This is the top.
9/11. Oil at $140. Then the banks collapse. In 2008, one airline disappears every four days. 88 gone in a single year. The gray is spreading.
For the first time, more airlines close than open. 506 shut down. Only 340 start. The survivors get bigger. Everyone else gets acquired or goes broke.
About 1,200 airlines still operate. The gray on this map? Those are the ones that didn't. There are more dead airlines than living ones.
By Country
The US has lost over 200. Italy lost 84% of every airline it ever had. Hover a country to see its numbers.
Survival
Half of all failed airlines died before their 11th birthday. Only 1 in 4 made it to 30. The curve drops fast and never recovers.
The dead
Each one had a logo, a livery, gate agents, and regulars who knew the flight attendants by name. Then one day it was just over. Click any for the story.
Still here
These airlines survived world wars, oil shocks, pandemics, and competitors who had more money, newer planes, and better routes. They're still here.
All of them
Airlines don't die because people stop flying.
They die because flying is one of the hardest businesses on Earth.
Fuel is expensive. Margins are thin. One bad quarter can undo a decade of work. And the sky doesn't care who you are.
The Data Drop
We make one of these every few weeks. Data stories about things you didn't know you cared about.
You're in. Next one's yours.