According to the Federal Aviation Administration, there are 44,000 flights across the United States on a given day. The industry is responsible for ferrying millions of passengers within the country and abroad.
The top three airlines, depending on the metrics used, are Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and American Airlines. They each have fleets of approximately 900 aircraft and fly hundreds of millions of passengers annually.
The same three entities are also the top airlines by volume of litigation filings. United takes the top prize, with 670 cases in federal court since 2020. American is close behind, with 586. Delta lands with a distant third place – only 194 cases.
Industry-wide, cases have increased slightly since 2020, likely due to the overall increase in airline traffic relative to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Across all of the airlines, the top case type is Airline Personal Injury, a specialized case type that covers this tightly regulated industry. The case type covers a wide breadth of injuries, from the results of aviation accidents to injuries sustained during inflight beverage service.
Other top case types include employment matters, generalized personal injury, and breach of contract.
United’s top law firms are KMA Zuckert, Reed Smith, and Littler Mendelson. Unlike Delta and American, their top case type is employment law, not airline personal injury.
American’s top law firms are Kelly Hart & Hallman, O’Melveny & Myers, and Greenberg Traurig.
Delta has faced far fewer cases than the other major airlines, but has faced a spate of airline personal injury cases recently, largely related to the February 2025 hard landing of a Delta Connection flight in Toronto. That incident led to no fatalities, but several dozen injuries. Delta’s top law firms are Hinshaw & Culbertson, Connell Foley, Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker.
