World's biggest airline during coronavirus (COVID-19): Qatar Airways flies most passenger kilometres in April

The outbreak of COVID-19 and resulting travel restrictions has thrown up its fair share of anomalies in the world of aviation. Some unusual airlines flew into Australia for the first time, while a small airport in Alaska suddenly found itself becoming the world's busiest. The latest anomaly has put a new carrier at the top of the world's biggest airlines list. Qatar Airways is now the world's largest airline based on revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) flown. Not only did Qatar become the world's largest airline based on this measure in April, it accounted for an extraordinary 17.6% of all passenger kilometres worldwide for the month. Previously it wasn't even in the top 10. The airline has now flown 50m kilometres and 1.8m passengers on more than 15,000 flights during the crisis. Qatar Airways also became the only international carrier from the region to continue regular flights into Australia as other airlines grounded their fleets due to travel restrictions. Key rival Emirates suspended its Australian routes on March 25, resuming flights to some cities on May 21.<br/>