Which Airlines Fly To The Most Countries? There’s A Huge Gap…

I don’t want to bury the lede — in posts, I often reference how Turkish Airlines flies to more countries than any other airline in the world. However, how many countries does the airline actually fly to, and how far ahead of competitors is Turkish Airlines? I thought that would be interesting to explore…

Turkish Airlines flies to 120+ countries

Turkish Airlines has the record for flying to more countries than any other airline in the world. That has been the case for a long time, but just recently, the Star Alliance carrier made it official, with a new Guinness World Record in the category of “most countries flown to by an airline.”

The airline has flown to more countries than any other airline since 2012, and has a sizable lead over competitors. However, up until now, it wasn’t a Guinness World Record.

Just how many countries does Turkish Airlines fly to? The official record is for the airline flying to 120 countries, which reflects active routes of the last 12 months. However, including temporarily suspended routes, the carrier’s network spans up to 131 countries.

Turkish Airlines is also far from done with its expansion — the airline has massive growth plans, and intends to double in size between 2023 and 2033. Of course that won’t necessarily lead to a huge increase in the number of countries served, as much of that growth will be focused on adding destinations in countries already served, and increasing frequencies in existing markets.

Turkish Airlines has a 30+ country lead over other airlines

What’s perhaps most impressive about Turkish Airlines’ record for serving the most countries is just how far ahead of competitors the airline is. Turkish Airlines claims to be 30+ countries ahead of the next airline when it comes to countries served.

Anyone want to take a guess as to which airlines are next on the list? Here are a few general thoughts that come to mind:

• Airlines in the Middle East (or between what we traditionally think of as Europe and Asia) have a huge advantage, since they can serve countries both east and west that aren’t too far
• Europe has dozens of countries in close proximity, so that’s an easy way to serve lots of countries
• I’d assume that extensive service to Africa is also a must to have a high country count, since it’s a continent that’s not well served by many airlines

Wwith that in mind, which airlines serve the most countries, aside from Turkish Airlines? According to flightconnections.com:

• Among the “big three” Gulf carriers, Qatar Airways flies to 84 countries, Emirates flies to 77 countries, and Etihad flies to 52 countries
• Among the “big three” European carriers, Air France flies to 83 countries, British Airways flies to 79 countries, and Lufthansa flies to 71 countries
• Among the “big three” US carriers, United flies to 73 countries, American flies to 62 countries, and Delta flies to 59 countries

It would appear that Air France and Qatar Airways are basically tied behind Turkish Airlines, give or take. It’s not surprising to see Air France doing so well, given that the airline serves a lot more countries in Africa than other European carriers.

Meanwhile it’s impressive that Emirates serves so many countries when you consider that the airline just flies wide body jets. If you combined the networks of Emirates and FlyDubai (both are owned by the government, but the airlines are run separately), then the combined airline would have close to as many destinations as Turkish Airlines.

Let me of course also acknowledge that the number of countries served and number of destinations served is very different, and US carriers would do much better by the latter metric. And if the question is the number of premium destinations served, then there’s only one right answer. 😉

Bottom line

Turkish Airlines sets the world record for serving the most countries in the world. The airline actively flies to 120+ countries, but including suspended routes, serves 130+ countries. That puts the airline way ahead of the next carriers by this metric, which are Air France and Qatar Airways, each of which serve just under 85 countries.

Are you surprised by the airlines serving the most countries?