The numbers of the three European mega-groups. Why SAS's entry into Air France/KLM could change everything

After Air France/KLM's announcement that it will expand its stake in SAS to 60.5%, effectively taking control of the Scandinavian company, and following Lufthansa's entry into ITA Airways, 2025 could make history in European air transport.

Turkish Airlines aside, there are five companies left Full service with a continental and intercontinental network with more than 50 aircraft in the fleet which are not yet part of one of the three large carrier agglomerations-Lufthansa Group, IAG, and Air France/KLM.

It is the Portuguese TAP, of the Spanish Air Europa, of German Condor, of the Polish LOT and Finnish Finnair. It is highly likely that in the coming years, even the few 'independents' will end up inside one of the three groups, with attempts having already been made for TAP and Air Europa.

To say today which, of the three, is the strongest group is not easy, although Lufthansa Group and IAG still appear to have an edge over Air France/KLMpending the European Antitrust Authority's green light for the latter's acquisition of SAS.

What can be done is to X-ray the three agglomerations on the basis of the member companies, the fleets and network of each carrier, the number of passengers carried in 2024, and some economic results.

From Lufthansa Group is part of a broad spectrum of vectors that also includes two leisure airlines and one low-cost airline. Full services are. Lufthansa, ITA Airways, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Air Dolomiti; leisure are Edelweiss Air and Discover Airlines, the low-cost (albeit peculiar, because On some planes and some routes also offers a business class product) is Eurowings.

The total number of aircraft in charge of the group is 865, of which 357 by Lufthansa, 123 by Eurowings, 100 by ITA, 94 by Swiss, 68 by Austrian, 46 by Brussels, 30 by Discover, 26 by Air Dolomiti, and 21 by Edelweiss. The total destinations served are about 350. In 2024, it carried 131mln passengers with a turnover of €37.5 billion and a profit of €1.4 billion (figures, these, which are pre-entry of ITA into the Group). The Frequent Flyer Program is. (for all but ITA and Edelweiss) Miles & More, which has about 37 million subscribers. The relevant international alliance (not yet, for ITA) is Star Alliance.

The International Airlines Group (IAG) contrasts its ranks with three full-service carriers (British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus), one low-cost carrier (Vueling) and one leisure carrier (Level). The total number of aircraft is 666, of which 296 by British, 163 by Iberia, 58 by Aer Lingus, 142 by Vueling and 7 by Level. The destinations served by the group airlines are about 200 in total. In 2024 they carried 122 million passengers with sales of 32.1 billion euros and a profit of 2.7 billion euros. The companies' frequent flyer programs use the same 'currency,' the Avios. The relevant international alliance is oneworld.

The Air France/KLM group includes, in addition to the two full-service carriers, the low-cost Transavia which has a Dutch branch and a French branch. There are 601 aircraft in the three combined fleets (that would be 734 counting SAS aircraft), of which 264 are in Air France's colors, 196 in KLM's and 141 in Transavia's. There are about 300 destinations served. In 2024, it carried 98 million passengers (123 million if we counted SAS passengers) with a turnover of 30 billion euros and a profit of 990 million euros. The loyalty program is Flying Blue, which has 20 million members, and the international alliance to which the three group companies belong is Skyteam.

It is clear from the statistics how the entry of Scandinavian Airlines into the Air France/KLM Group could change the balance of European air transport, as would lead the latter to compete on par with IAG in terms of passengers carried and surpass it in terms of fleet size, while in terms of network AF/KL is already now very close to the LH Group.