Airline network statistics from 2LNR's schedule data

Definitions

Nonstop

A flight with zero en-route stops. A single flight number that touches down somewhere between its endpoints is excluded everywhere on this page, as it is on the 2LNR route map.

Directional route

An ordered pair of airports. JFK to LAX and LAX to JFK are two routes, because they're two separate schedules that can differ in frequency, equipment and carrier.

Operating carrier

The airline whose metal flies the segment, including its own regional affiliates flying under its brand. Codeshare partners that market a flight they don't operate are excluded, so one physical departure is counted once rather than once per partner.

Scheduled departure

One flight, on one date, scheduled to depart. It's a count of scheduled flying, not of seats, passengers, fares or availability.

Window

396 days: the 30 days before and the 365 days after the day the underlying snapshot was built, inclusive.

How the figures are produced

1. 2LNR continuously observes airline schedules and records each nonstop segment it sees, by carrier, aircraft type and date.
2. We roll those observations up into a route summary: one row per origin, destination, marketing airline, operating carrier and aircraft type, over the 396-day window.
3. Rows the marketing carrier doesn't itself operate are excluded, so a codeshared flight is counted once.
4. Rows filed under the ticketing codes H1, X1 and W1 are excluded. Those codes sell seats on flights other airlines operate, so they never count as a carrier.
5. Rows whose implied speed, distance or aircraft range are physically impossible are excluded, and non-airport location codes such as rail and bus stations are excluded.
6. The four queries below run against that summary. Nothing on this page is estimated, extrapolated, seeded or hand-entered.

Limits worth knowing

• These counts describe what 2LNR observes, which isn't the same as every flight operating in the world. A carrier or route absent here is absent from our data, not necessarily from the sky.
• Schedules are forward-looking and change constantly. A figure measured today won't reproduce exactly tomorrow.
• Charter, cargo-only and non-scheduled flying isn't represented.
• H1, X1 and W1 are ticketing codes: they sell seats on flights other airlines operate, so no figure here counts them. A flight filed only under one of those codes is left out too, because 2LNR can't name the airline that flies it.
• No availability of any kind is published here. Seat, upgrade and award inventory is a separate question this report deliberately doesn't answer.

The queries

These run verbatim against the route summary above: route_map_route_agg is that summary, and frequency counts the scheduled departures on each row.

Totals

SELECT
    COUNT(DISTINCT (r.origin, r.destination))::bigint                                          AS directional_routes,
    COUNT(DISTINCT (LEAST(r.origin, r.destination), GREATEST(r.origin, r.destination)))::bigint AS airport_pairs,
    COUNT(DISTINCT r.airline) FILTER (WHERE r.airline ~ '^[A-Z0-9]{2,3}$')::bigint          AS operating_carriers,
    COALESCE(SUM(r.frequency), 0)::bigint                                                       AS scheduled_departures
FROM route_map_route_agg r
WHERE (r.operating_carrier = r.airline OR r.operating_carrier = '**') AND r.airline NOT IN ('H1', 'W1', 'X1')

Airports with nonstop service

SELECT COUNT(*)::bigint AS airports FROM (
    SELECT r.origin      AS code FROM route_map_route_agg r WHERE (r.operating_carrier = r.airline OR r.operating_carrier = '**') AND r.airline NOT IN ('H1', 'W1', 'X1')
    UNION
    SELECT r.destination AS code FROM route_map_route_agg r WHERE (r.operating_carrier = r.airline OR r.operating_carrier = '**') AND r.airline NOT IN ('H1', 'W1', 'X1')
) a

Busiest directional routes

SELECT r.origin, r.destination,
       COALESCE(SUM(r.frequency), 0)::bigint AS scheduled_departures,
       COUNT(DISTINCT r.airline)::int        AS operating_carriers
FROM route_map_route_agg r
WHERE (r.operating_carrier = r.airline OR r.operating_carrier = '**') AND r.airline NOT IN ('H1', 'W1', 'X1')
GROUP BY r.origin, r.destination
ORDER BY scheduled_departures DESC, r.origin, r.destination
LIMIT $1

Carriers by directional reach

SELECT r.airline,
       COUNT(DISTINCT (r.origin, r.destination))::bigint AS directional_routes,
       COALESCE(SUM(r.frequency), 0)::bigint             AS scheduled_departures
FROM route_map_route_agg r
WHERE (r.operating_carrier = r.airline OR r.operating_carrier = '**') AND r.airline NOT IN ('H1', 'W1', 'X1') AND r.airline ~ '^[A-Z0-9]{2,3}$'
GROUP BY r.airline
ORDER BY directional_routes DESC, scheduled_departures DESC, r.airline
LIMIT $1

Suggested citation:

Interline, Inc. “Airline network statistics from 2LNR's schedule data.” Measured November 5, 2026. https://2lnr.com/data/network

Machine-readable copy:

Download the figures as CSV: one row per measure, each carrying the date it was measured and the window length.