Globally there were nearly 31 million flights in 2022, according to Cirium data. Splitting
it over the entire year, this equates to 84,931 flights daily, 3,538 per hour, 59 per minute, and
one each second. While annual flights were down by 19% over 2019, the mind boggles at how much
activity that is. But what were the top 10 most used aircraft? Let’s take a look in today’s video!
Getting right to the point, more flights were by the A320ceo than any other aircraft.
With 6.35 million, the middle-of-the-road Airbus narrowbody had a fifth of the world's services,
based on analyzing every type and variant flying globally, using schedules information from Cirium.
The full chart is shown here - which consists entirely of smaller aircraft.
In fact, occupying three spots in the top 10 are large turboprops and regional jets,
led by the Embraer E175 (in sixth place). Thanks to the USA's scope clause agreement and upgauging,
is the world's most popular regional jet. Then it's the ATR-72 which took 7th place.
This aircraft is renowned for low operating costs on short trips. In 10th place was the CRJ-900.
While the A320ceo ranked first globally, the similarly ubiquitous 737-800 was next;
both are effectively used on the same missions and are equivalent equipment.
Traditionally, many startup carriers, especially low cost carriers and ultra low cost carriers,
would choose one of them if they're chasing an ideal payload-range and seat-cost balance.
The A320ceo/737-800 have been excellent choices
for balancing trip cost, seat-mile cost, and not having too many seats to fill.
Obviously, these narrowbody jets are increasingly superseded by aircraft with more modern technology
with far lower fuel burn - aircraft like the A320neo (which ranked seventh globally
in 2022) and 737 MAX 8 (in eighth place). However, these are much more expensive to
acquire and therefore need greater use to reduce the ownership costs per seat-mile.
The increasingly popular large narrowbody, the A321neo, with even better economics if
the capacity is utilized, fell just outside the top 10 (with 609,000
flights); undoubtedly it'll make an appearance on this chart in the future.
Despite all the problems afflicting the MAX, the MAX 8 managed to make the most used list.
After being grounded, American Airlines was the first airline in the US to restart 737 MAX
flights following the FAA's recertification of the aircraft. Flight AA718 took off from
Miami to New York La Guardia on December 29th, 2020, a little over two years ago.
Analyzing Cirium data reveals that 708 airports globally had at least 20 MAX 8 flights in 2022.
Not surprisingly, Miami had the most, followed by Dubai, Mexico City, Vancouver,
Toronto, Istanbul Airport, Milan Bergamo, Honolulu, Las Vegas, and São Paulo Guarulhos.
How many of the top 10 aircraft mentioned in this
video did you fly on in 2022? Let us know in the comments.