A Few Charts & Stats About First Class
There are more First Class seats flying than you might think
Aviation is a bigger industry than people imagine. It is easy to feel that a plane is coming especially for you and a few others. In fact the scale is enormous. Even in First Class, more people are travelling than you might think.
On a normal Monday, 12-May-2025, there will be 8,390 First Class seats operating on 997 flights. And that is just the wide-bodies with “proper” First Class, as shown on aerolopa.com. No North American shorthaul like Frontier’s gambit (see article) in there.
This article was written with data from OAG Schedules Analyser. Visit oag.com. Thanks OAG!
The global airline industry’s daily First Class capacity is 50.7 million Available Seat Kilometres, or ASK for short (31.5 million Available Seat Miles, ASM). So the average First Class seat operates on a flight 6,044km (3,755 miles) long.
This distance is surprisingly short. First Class travellers do not buy plane tickets because the flight they want is long. They buy it because they want to travel in as fine a style as possible without going private.
So airlines operate First Class on some short-ish but profitable routes. Think London Heathrow to Lagos (3,101 miles) or Paris Charles de Gaulle to New York JFK (3,635 miles)
Where are First Class operators flying from?
The chart below shows all the flights, seats and ASK by originating region based on where the airline holds their Air Operator Certificate.
[Important note: in the OAG data, First Class operator Etihad do not appear to currently be scheduling aircraft with First Class, so Etihad is not included in this analysis – neither is African carrier TAAG of Angola, which does not appear to have a LOPA available on aerolopa.com]
It is interesting to note that the Middle East offers more than 50% of global First Class capacity by seats. But it also offers less than 50% of First Class capacity by the number of flights and total ASKs, which reflect the cost to airlines of operating First Class.
Wealthy GCC nationals and expats, and their families, use First Class cabins to fly relatively short distances to Europe and Asia. For Emirates the choice to put First Class seats on the plane (see article) is clear.
Which airlines are most committed to First Class?
As shown in the table below, Emirates is the most committed airline to First Class. 77.3% of their flights have it and the plush seats represent 2.0% of their total ASKs. They represent a whopping 41.2% of global First Class capacity by ASK.
British Airways is still in second place, but much smaller than they used to be. 792 First Class seats are available on 87 of their daily flights.
Combine Lufthansa and Swiss with their chaotic Allegris concept (see article) and depending on how you look at things they might actually cross BA in the table with 788 seats over 104 flights.
They now have between nine and ten seats a flight on average. But back in the days when the corporate contracts stipulated First Class for executives running a show, BA fitted their planes with 14 of the plush suites.
Air France might have a snazzy and expensive First Class product. But it is not available on most of their flights. They only have 104 seats a day.
Meanwhile in Asia things get a bit more competitive. 11 airlines operate 309 First Class flights with 2,114 comfy seats.
Which First Class routes are the largest?
Guess which route is the largest globally for First Class in terms of ASKs. Then look at the chart below. Did you get it right?
Surprisingly it is not London Heathrow to New York JFK. It is either Heathrow to Singapore (1.2 million ASK) or Heathrow to Dubai (17 flights, 208 seats).
On Heathrow to Singapore there are three operators. Singapore Airlines has four flights a day with First Class. British Airways has two and Aussie flag carrier Qantas has one.
Conclusion
There are more than 8.000 First Class seats flying every day and more than three million a year. The Middle East, India and Asia together represent 73.3% of global First Class ASKs by Aircraft Operator Certificate (AOC) country of registration.
Flying First Class may no longer be fashionable or “sustainable” in Europe (23.9% of global First Class ASKs by AOC location). It has gone completely passe in America (2.8% of global ASKs).
But that does not mean it is still out there. It is still there and it is bigger than you think.
Read more on Airline Revenue Economics
First class is in demand but sales are down because of classic marketing errors
Allegris First heralds the end of the front cabin for Lufty & Swiss