In this article we are going to list the 15 largest transportation companies in the world. The transportation industry, or the transportation sector, is one of the most important sectors in the world, and is absolutely crucial to the progression and improvement of the world, and includes various industries within. It is after all, an all encompassing industry which includes railways, airlines, shipping and even post. In a world which is completely global, transportation is the most important sector without which the transportation of goods and passengers would be impossible, and global trade would cease to exist as we know it.
To obtain an idea of how major a sector the transportation industry comprises of, just know that in 2019 it was worth around $6.1 trillion. The biggest global transportation services market was present in Western Europe, which had more than 30% of the total share of the market, while Asia-Pacific is not as far behind holding around 29% of the global transport services market. Meanwhile, Africa has by far the smallest share of the market, mainly because of a lack of infrastructure in most countries in the continent, because of which transportation is yet to properly flourish in the region. Another issue in Africa is the presence of militants and lawlessness plaguing many nations, which again affects the development of the countries.
The transportation industry is also being revolutionized by technology, which is adapting the latest improvements made in the industry, which includes artificial intelligence being used for driving, while car hailing apps such as Careem and Uber are worth billions of dollars. Traditional companies also need to catch up to ensure that they don’t use their market share, even though the largest transportation companies in the world earn revenues of tens of billion of dollars.
Covid-19 has impacted the world, and to prevent the spread of the virus, most nations across the world went into lockdown and global and international travel and transportation came to a complete halt unless for emergency purposes. Due to this, most industries were impact though few were hit as badly as the transportation industry, whose entire basis for existence was restricted by most countries. Because of this, the transportation industry is expected to lose more than $100 billion in the year 2020 and this loss may even be greater. To get an idea of how bad the situation actually is, you might want to take a look at the 10 busiest airports in 2019, which also shows the impact of Covid-19 in 2020 on airports.
If you take a look at the biggest companies in the transportation industry, you will note that there are a lot of airlines; namely the flagship carriers of some of the most developed countries in the world including three US airlines. When this list is made again in 2021, it is very likely that most of these airlines will not be in the list due to the devastating losses they’ve suffered, because of which they’ve faced losses up to $314 billion, though recovery is expected and the total value of the industry is expected to be around $7.5 trillion in 2023.
When we take a look at the largest transportation companies in the world, you will see companies at the top of their game, with total revenues crossing more than $1 trillion, while providing direct employment to more than two million people. The biggest company alone employs more than 920,000 people which shows the strength of the companies in our list. We have used Fortune Global 500 as our source and to prepare the ranking for the companies, we have used revenue, assets, profits and employees of the company as well. So let’s take a look at the companies who have mastered the art of transportation, starting with number 15:
15. East Japan Railway
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 27,102
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,825
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 78,996
Total employees of the company in 2019: 85,114
Japan’s largest railway company is headquartered in Tokyo and was established in 1987.
Pixabay/Public Domain
14. Lufthansa Group
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 40,768
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,358
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 47,881
Total employees of the company in 2019: 118,292
Outside of the US, Lufthansa is the biggest airline in the world and is operated in Germany, and also owns various subsidiary airlines including Brussels Airlines, Swiss International Air and Austrian Airlines.
Pixabay/Public Domain
13. United Airline Holdings (NASDAQ:UAL)
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 43,259
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 3,009
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 52,611
Total employees of the company in 2019: 96,000
United Airlines is the third largest airline in the United States and is one of the oldest airlines in the world as well, having commenced operations in 1931 after the amalgamation of several small airlines which were established in the 1920s.
Pixabay/Public Domain
12. U.S. Postal Service
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 71,154
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): -8,813
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 25,633
Total employees of the company in 2019: 565,021
The U.S. Postal service overlooks the postal service of the United States, and came under intense scrutiny during the 2020 Presidential Election, as a lot of votes were cast through mail due to the pandemic.
Tupungato/Shutterstock.com
11. SNCF Group
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 39,308
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): -897
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 107,809
Total employees of the company in 2019: 276,350
SNCF Group is the state-owned railway company of France and one of the largest in Europe, with 32,000 km of railway network.
10. La Poste
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 29,082
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 920
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 326,618
Total employees of the company in 2019: 225,693
La Poste is the largest postal company in France and is responsible for the national postal service of the country. In addition to France, the company also serves Monaco.
Pixabay/Public Domain
9. FedEx (NYSE:FDX)
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 69,693
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 540
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 54,403
Total employees of the company in 2019: 374,198
FedEx is one of the largest logistics companies in the world, which is also one of the largest contractors of the US government. By revenue, it is one of the biggest companies in the United States.
Pixabay/Public Domain
8. American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL)
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 45,768
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,686
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 59,995
Total employees of the company in 2019: 133,700
Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, American Airlines is the second biggest airline in the world which operates more than 6,800 flights every single day providing passage to nearly 350 destinations in around 50 countries across the globe. It is a founding member of one of the largest airline alliances in the world in Oneworld alliance. The company operates out of 10 hubs with the Fort Worth hub being by far the largest and transports more than 200 million passengers on an annual basis and around 500,000 passengers daily.
Pixabay/Public Domain
7. China COSCO Shipping
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 44,655
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,087
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 125,906
Total employees of the company in 2019: 118,243
China COSCO is headquartered in Shanghai and provides marine transportation services. It came into existence in 2016 after the merger of COSCO Group and China Shipping Group. It also has a fleet which is among the largest in the world, with 1,310 vessels which have a combined capacity with nearly 106 million DWT.
Pixabay/Public Domain
6. Delta Airlines (NYSE:DAL)
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 47,007
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 4,767
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 64,532
Total employees of the company in 2019: 91,224
Delta Airlines is one of the premier airlines in the United States, and operates over 5,400 flights every single day while serving 352 destinations in more than 50 countries across six continents. The operator also has nine hubs, and Atlanta is its biggest hub in terms of total passenger departures. It is, by our rankings, the biggest airline in the world.
Due to Covid, Delta lost more than $5.4 billion in the third quarter of 2020 which meant that the total losses of the airline due the pandemic totaled more than $11 billion.
Pixabay/Public Domain
5. Deutsche Bahn
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 49,729
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 747
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 73,885
Total employees of the company in 2019: 323,944
Deutsche Bahn is a German railway company, and the biggest railway company in both Germany as well as Europe, and is headquartered in Berlin. In 2015, it was the largest railway company in terms of revenue and generally carries around two billion passengers on an annual basis. The company was founded 26 years ago back in 1994 and is divided into several companies, with one of its subsidiaries operating major parts of the railway infrastructure in Germany.
Pixabay/Public Domain
4. Deutsche Post DHL Group
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 70,895
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 2,936
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 58,555
Total employees of the company in 2019: 504,871
It is the biggest transportation company not just in Germany but also in Europe, and delivers more than 61 million posts every single day. Its Express division, known popularly as DHL, is the largest courier company in the world and has a presence in more than 220 countries and territories.
Pixabay/Public Domain
3. UPS (NYSE:UPS)
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 74,094
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 4,440
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 57,857
Total employees of the company in 2019: 377,640
United Parcel Service is perhaps one of the most well-known transportation services, and is the biggest transportation company outside of China, including of course the United States. The company was founded 113 years ago in 1907 and has over 119,000 delivery vehicles, which ranges from bicycles to tractor-trailer trucks.
Pixabay/Public Domain
2. China Merchants Group
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 49,126
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 5,233
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 277,918
Total employees of the company in 2019: 157,635
The top two companies in our list are both from China which shouldn’t be surprising considering the fact that the country has more than 1.4 billion people. China Merchants Group is state owned and offers various services which include port transportation, professional logistics and freight forwarding.
Rasica/Shutterstock.com
1. China Post Group
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 89,347
Total profits of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 4,441
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,518,543
Total employees of the company in 2019: 927,171
Easily topping the list of the 10 largest transportation companies of the world is China Post Group, which employs over 900,000 people and more than $1.5 trillion in assets. Founded in 1997, the company is state owned and is also responsible for operating the official postal service of China, and is responsible for the provision of post in mainland China.
Pixabay/Public Domain
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Disclosure: No position. 15 largest transportation companies in the world is originally published at Insider Monkey.
