List of low-cost airlines
The following is a list of low-cost airlines organised by home country. A low-cost airline or low-cost carrier (also known as a discount or budget carrier or airline) is an airline that offers generally low fares in exchange for eliminating many traditional passenger services.
Africa
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Americas
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Asia
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Europe
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Oceania
Largest low-cost carriers
This is a list of largest low-cost carriers in the world, ranked by number of transported passengers, shown below in millions.
| Ranks | Airline / holding | '25 | '24 | '23 | '22 | '21 | '20 | '19 | '18 | '17 | '16 | '15 | '14 | '13 | '12 | '11 | '10 | Sources | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ryanair | 206.6 | 197.1 | 181.7 | 160.4 | 72.5 | 52.1 | 152.4 | 139.1 | 128.8 | 116.8 | 101.4 | 86.4 | 81.4 | 79.6 | 76.4 | 72.7 | ||
| 2 | .svg.png){kind=small} easyJet1 | 93.4 | 89.7 | 82.8 | 69.7 | 20.4 | 48.1 | 96.1 | 88.5 | 80.2 | 73.1 | 69.9 | 65.3 | 61.4 | 59.2 | 55.5 | 49.7 | ||
| 3 |  Air Asia Group2 | – | – | – | 34.2 | 14.5 | 23.0 | 83.5 | 73.0 | 63.3 | 56.6 | 50.6 | 45.6 | 42.6 | 34.1 | 29.9 | 25.7 | ||
| 4 |  Lion Air Group3 | – | 16.0 | 18.7 | 18.9 | 9.9 | 12.7 | 25.5 | 36.4 | 35.4 | 32.4 | – | 45.0 | 37.9 | 32.0 | 27.0 | 20.5 | ||
| 5 |  Gol Transportes Aéreos | – | – | 30.2 | 27.3 | 18.8 | 16.7 | 36.4 | 33.4 | 32.5 | 30.7 | 27.1 | 25.7 | 21.0 | 15.0 | 13.6 | 10.9 | ||
| 6 |  Norwegian Air Shuttle | 27.3 | 22.6 | 20.6 | 17.8 | 3.1 | 6.8 | 36.3 | 37.3 | 33.2 | 29.3 | 25.8 | 24.0 | 20.7 | 17.7 | 15.7 | 13.0 | ||
| 7 |  Vueling | – | – | 36.7 | 31.9 | 14.3 | 9.6 | 34.5 | 32.7 | 29.6 | 27.8 | 24.8 | 21.5 | 17.2 | 14.8 | 12.3 | 11.0 | ||
| 8 |  Pegasus Airlines | – | – | 31.9 | 26.9 | 20.1 | 14.7 | 30.8 | 30.0 | 27.8 | 24.1 | 22.3 | 19.7 | 16.9 | 13.6 | 11.3 | 8.6 | ||
| 9 |  Wizz Air5 | 69.7 | 63.4 | 62.0 | 51.1 | 27.1 | 10.2 | 16.7 | 39.8 | 33.8 | 28.3 | 22.8 | 19.2 | 12.0 | 11.2 | 9.6 | 7.8 | 5.8 | |
| 10 | .svg.png){kind=small} Jetstar6 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 18.9 | 17.1 | 15.2 | 10.5 | 9.7 | 8.0 | ||
| 11 |  Cebu Pacific7 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 22.5 | 20.3 | 19.7 | 19.1 | 18.4 | 16.9 | 14.4 | 12.3 | 10.5 | – | ||
| 12 |  Spirit Airlines | – | – | – | – | – | – | 34.5 | 29.3 | 24.1 | 21.6 | 17.9 | 14.3 | 12.4 | 10.4 | 8.5 | 7.0 | ||
| 13 |  SpiceJet | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 11.7 | 12.6 | 11.7 | 9.5 | 8.6 | 6.6 | ||
| 14 |  Transavia8 | – | – | 21.4 | – | – | – | 16.6 | 15.8 | 14.8 | 13.3 | 10.8 | 9.9 | 8.9 | - | - | - | ||
| 15 | Allegiant Air | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 9.4 | 8.0 | 7.1 | 6.6 | 6.1 | 5.9 | ||
| 16 |  flydubai | – | 13.8 | 10.6 | – | – | – | – | – | 10.9 | 10.4 | 9.0 | 7.3 | 6.8 | 5.1 | – | – | ||
| 17 |  VietJet Air9 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 8.5 | 7.0 | 6.8 | 6.5 | 6.0 | – | ||
| 18 |  Spring Airlines | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 7.9 | 7.6 | 6.6 | 6.7 | 5.8 | 5.3 | ||
| 19 | AirArabia10 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 6.8 | 6.1 | 5.3 | 4.7 | 4.5 | ||
| 20 | Jet2.com | – | – | – | – | – | – | 14.4 | 12.2 | 9.7 | 7.1 | 5.9 | 6.0 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 4.2 | 3.4 | ||
| 21 |  Nok Air | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4.8 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 3.3 | 3.7 | 3.9 | ||
| 22 |  Mango | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2.3 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.3 | ||
| 23 | Fastjet11 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.4 | <0.1 | – | – |
- Notes
- ^1 Includes EasyJet Switzerland.
- ^2 Includes AirAsia X, Indonesia AirAsia, Philippines AirAsia, Thai AirAsia and Thai AirAsia X.
- ^3 Includes Batik Air, Wings Air, Batik Air Malaysia, Thai Lion Air, Super Air Jet, Lion BizJet (charter airline division) and Lion Parcel (cargo airline division).
- ^5 Includes Wizz Air Abu Dhabi and Wizz Air UK.
- ^6 Includes Jetstar Asia, Jetstar Japan and Jetstar Pacific.
- ^7 Includes Cebgo.
- ^8 Includes Transavia France.
- ^9 Includes Thai Vietjet Air.
- ^10 Includes Air Arabia Maroc, Air Arabia Egypt and Air Arabia Jordan.
- ^11 Includes Fastjet Tanzania and Fastjet Zimbabwe.
Defunct low-cost carriers
Africa
Americas
Argentina
Barbados- Brazil
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Canada- Air Canada Tango
- Canada 3000
- Canada Jetlines
- CanJet
- Greyhound Air
- Harmony Airways
- Jetsgo
- Lynx Air
- Swoop (re-integrated into WestJet)
- Sunwing Airlines (merged into WestJet)
- Vistajet
- Wardair
- WestJet (transitioned to full-service carrier)
- Zip
- Zoom Airlines
Chile
Colombia
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Honduras
Ecuador
Mexico- Aero California
- Aladia
- Aviacsa
- Avolar
- Click Mexicana (until 2008; Click was rebranded MexicanaClick and was no longer a low-cost airline)
- Interjet
- Líneas Aéreas Azteca
- SARO
- TAESA Lineas Aéreas
Peru- United States
- Air Florida
- AirTran Airways (acquired by Southwest Airlines)
- America West Airlines (merged into US Airways)
- ATA Airlines
- Braniff (1991–1992)
- Eastern Air Lines (2015)[9]
- Hooters Air
- Independence Air
- JetTrain
- MetroJet
- Midway Airlines
- National Airlines
- Pacific Southwest Airlines
- People Express
- Safe Air
- Skybus Airlines
- SkyValue
- Song (operations folded into Delta Air Lines)
- Southeast Airlines
- Spirit Airlines
- Streamline Air
- Ted (operations folded into United Airlines)
- Tower Air
- ValuJet Airlines
- Vanguard Airlines
- Virgin America (merged with Alaska Airlines)
- Western Pacific Airlines
Uruguay
Asia
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Georgia
Hong Kong- India
- Air Asia India (merged with Air India Express)
- Go First
- JetKonnect (merged with Jet Airways)
- Jetlite (merged with Jet Airways)
- Kingfisher Red
- Paramount Airways
- Simplifly Deccan
- Indonesia
Israel
Japan- Air Next
- AirAsia Japan
- Link Airs
- JAL Express
- Vanilla Air (merged with Peach Aviation)
Jordan
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Macau
Malaysia
Nepal
Pakistan- Philippines
- Spirit of Manila Airlines
- Zest Airways (merged into Philippines AirAsia)
Republic of Korea
Saudi Arabia
Singapore- Jetstar Asia
- Tigerair (merged with Scoot)
- Valuair (acquired in 2005 by Jetstar Asia; dissolved in 2014)
Sri Lanka- Mihin Lanka (merged with SriLankan Airlines)
Taiwan- Thailand
- United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Europe
Albania
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Belgium- Virgin Express (merged with SN Brussels Airlines to form Brussels Airlines)
Cyprus
Czech Republic- Blue Air Moravia
Denmark
Faroe Islands
Finland
France
Germany- Air Berlin (became a full-service airline in 2010 and collapsed in 2017)
- DBA
- Germanwings (merged with Eurowings)
- HLX (merged with Hapagfly to Tuifly, city routes then sold to Air Berlin)
- OLT Express Germany
Greece
Iceland- Ireland
Italy- Netherlands
- Norway
Poland
Romania- Bees Airlines
- Blue Air
- Carpatair (now operates as a regional airline)
- Fly Romania
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia
Sweden
Ukraine- United Kingdom
Oceania
- Australia
- Air Australia
- Bonza
- Compass Airlines
- East-West Airlines
- Impulse Airlines (acquired by Qantas and rebranded as Jetstar and QantasLink)
- Tigerair Australia
- Virgin Blue (transitioned into a full-service airline in 2011 and renamed Virgin Australia)
New Zealand- Freedom Air
- Kiwi Airlines
- Pacific Blue Airlines (now codeshares with Air New Zealand and is a full service brand — Virgin Australia)
See also
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Low-cost airlines.
References
- ↑ "Spirit Airlines". www.spiritrestructuring.com. Retrieved 2 May 2026.
- ↑ Flybondi official website
- ↑ "Indigo Partners acquires stake in Alas del Sur - report". ch-aviation. ch-aviation GmbH. 2 July 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- ↑ Jet Smart official website
- ↑ Gamboa, Víctor; Villa y Caña, Pedro (26 December 2023). "Mexicana de Aviación vuelve a volar con viajes "más baratos" y equipaje de hasta 25 kilos sin costo". El Universal (in Spanish). Compañía Periodística Nacional. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
- ↑ "Mexicana de Aviación will become the new regional, low-cost airline". The Yucutan Times. 11 August 2023. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
- ↑ InterCaribbean Airways
- ↑ "Smartavia войдет в лето с 15 воздушными судами, три из которых Airbus A320neo". ATO. 17 April 2021.
- ↑ Eastern Air Lines