Major carrier

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Major carrier or more semantically correct, major airline carrier is a designation given by the United States Department of Transportation to U.S.-based airlines that post more than $1 billion in revenue during a fiscal year.

Current major carriers include:

• American Airlines
• AirTran Airways
• Alaska Airlines
• Continental Airlines
• Delta Air Lines
• DHL
• FedEx
• Frontier Airlines
• JetBlue Airways
• Northwest Airlines
• Southwest Airlines
• United Airlines
• United Parcel Service
• US Airways

The term "Major Carrier" is often misused. Major Carriers have $1 Billion annual revenue and fly aircraft greater than 100 seats. This often excludes regional carriers that meet the $1 Billion annual revenue requirement but do not fly larger aircraft. These airlines include:

• American Eagle Airlines
• ExpressJet
• Republic Airways Holdings
• Mesa Air Group
• SkyWest, Inc.(owns SkyWest and ASA)
• Comair
• Pinnacle Airlines Corp. [1](owns Colgan Air and Pinnacle Airlines)