Two of America's "Big Three" airlines have always been bigger than the third. Until now, that is: America's third-largest airline, Delta Air Lines Inc., has surpassed United Continental Holdings Inc. to become the nation's second-largest air carrier, Bloomberg Business reported this week.
Delta is now smaller than only American Airlines Group Inc., according to Bloomberg, which said Delta recorded 209.6 billion revenue passenger miles in 2015, compared to United's 208.6 billion and American's 223 billion. (Revenue passenger miles is a common airline metric that multiplies the number of passengers by the distance flown.)
"The reality is, Delta offers better service and a better product than United," Adam Hackel, an associate analyst at Sterne Agee CRT, told Bloomberg. "My first thought was people probably prefer to fly Delta now."
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