United claims ‘world’s largest’ mainline fleet following milestone aircraft delivery

United Airlines boasts that it has overtaken competitors as the world’s largest carrier by fleet size after taking delivery of its 1,000th “mainline” jet. Patrick Quayle, United’s senior vice-president of global network planning and alliances, touted the milestone delivery in a 12 February LinkedIn post. The Boeing 737 Max 9 registered as N77584 was delivered late last month. Quayle asserts that, with the delivery, United is the “first airline ever” to reach 1,000 mainline aircraft. “While we already hold the claim as the world’s largest airline by ASMs [available seat miles], we are now also the world’s largest airline by fleet size,” he says. All three of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United have claims on being the world’s largest airline by some measure. American’s fleet is larger than United’s when including regional jets, while Delta outpaces its rivals in annual revenue. <br/>