Photographs: Courtesy, Southwest Airlines.
Southwest Airlines remains the world's biggest low cost carrier (LCC), according to Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).
The top five LCC rankings remain unchanged, but big moves have occurred further down the list.
IndiGo and US-based Spirit continue to rise up the board. Europe's Vueling has grown a remarkable 40 per cent measured in available seat kilometers/capacity with IndiGo and Lion Air each expanding 35 40 per cent.
Take a look at the world's biggest budget airlines...
Southwest Airlines (Rank 1)
Country: United States
Capacity December 2012: 3.27 billion
Capacity Dec 2011: 3.05 billion
Percentage change: 7.3%
(Data: Representative sample week in December of each year.)
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Arpingstone/Wikimedia Commons.
Ryanair (Rank 2)
Country: Ireland
Capacity December 2012: 1.47 billion
Capacity December 2011: 1.59 billion
Percentage change: -7.2%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Donald derosa/Wikimedia Commons.
JetBlue Airways (Rank 3)
Country: United States
Capacity December 2012: 1.21 billion
Capacity December 2011: 1.18 billion
Percentage change: 2.1%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Tomccoll/Wikimedia Commons.
easyJet (Rank 4)
Country: United Kingdom
Capacity December 2012: 1.12 billion
Capacity December 2011: 1.05 billion
Percentage change: 6.4%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Roosewelt Pinheiro/Wikimedia Commons.
Gol (Rank 5)
Country: Brazil
Capacity December 2012: 913 million
Capacity December 2011: 1 billion
Percentage change: -9.3%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Lion Airlines.
Lion Airlines (Rank 6)
Country: Indonesia
Capacity December 2012: 810 million
Capacity December 2011: 602 million
Percentage change: 34.6%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: AirKoryoTU-204/Wikimedia Commons.
Jetstar Airways (Rank 7)
Country: Australia
Capacity December 2012: 732 million
December 2011: 627 million
Percentage change: 16.7%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Brian/Wikimedia Commons.
Westjet (Rank 8)
Country: Canada
Capacity December 2012: 703 million
Capacity December 2011: 677 million
Percentage change: 3.9%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: MamaGeek/Wikimedia Commons.
AirTran Airways (Rank 9)
Country: United States
Capacity December 2012: 593 million
Capacity December 2011: 704 million
Percentage change: -15.7%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Simon_sees/ Wikimedia Commons.
AirAsia Berhad (Rank 10)
Country: Malaysia
Capacity December 2012: 592 million
Capacity December 2011: 514 million
Percentage change: 15.2%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Reuters.
Indigo (Rank 11)
Country: India
Capacity December 2012: 489 million
Capacity December 2011: 363 million
Percentage change: 34.6%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Wikimedia Commons.
Norwegian (Rank 12)
Country: Norway
Capacity December 2012: 460 million
Capacity December 2011: 376 million
Percentage change: 22.5%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Courtesy, Condor.
Condor (Rank 13)
Country: Germany
Capacity December 2012: 400 million
Capacity December 2011: 408 million
Percentage change: -2.1%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Eric in SF/Wikimedia Commons.
Virgin America (Rank 14)
Country: United States
Capacity December 2012: 387 million
Capacity December 2011: 350 million
Percentage change: 10.7%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Jelson25/Wikimedia Commons.
Spirit Airlines (Rank 15)
Country: United States
Capacity December 2012: 373 million
Capacity December 2011: 297 million
Percentage change: 25.3%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Eduardo Garc a/Wikimedia Commons.
Volaris (Rank 16)
Country: Mexico
Capacity December 2012: 348 million
Capacity December 2011: 305 million
Percentage change: 14.3%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: P. Alejandro Diaz/Wikimedia Commons.
Frontier Airlines (Rank 17)
Country: United States
Capacity December 2012: 330 million
Capacity December 2011: 363 million
Percentage change: -9.2%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Arpingstone/Wikimedia Commons
Wizz Air (Rank 18)
Country: Hungary
Capacity December 2012: 330 million
Capacity December 2011: 314 million
Percentage change: 4.8%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Reuters.
SpiceJet (Rank 19)
Country: India
Capacity December 2012: 313 million
Capacity December 2011: 270 million
Percentage change: 16.0%
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World's biggest low-cost airlines
Photographs: Albion/Wikimedia Commons.
AirAsia X (Rank 20)
Country: Malaysia
Capacity December 2012: 306 million
Capacity December 2011: 367 million
Percentage change: -16.7%
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