70 free Airline trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
57 free airline trivia questions with answers. The airline is barely a century old, and its history is stranger than most passengers realise: it starts with Zeppelin airships, runs through a crop-dusting outfit that became Delta, and includes a jumbo jet designed in under three years and a supersonic jet only two airlines ever flew. This quiz is about the carriers and the business of flying, not the physics of flight. Expect the oldest airlines still going (KLM, Qantas), the low-cost revolution (Southwest, Ryanair), the giants of the Gulf, the three global alliances, frequent-flyer programs, IATA and ICAO codes and callsigns like "Speedbird", plus the aircraft that changed the industry and the nurse who became the world's first stewardess. It suits pub quizzes, aviation buffs and anyone who has spent too long in an airport lounge. Roughly a third of the questions are gentle; the rest reward people who know their hub from their alliance. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia's articles on the airlines and aircraft, and the source sentence appears under each question.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which airline, founded in 1919, is the oldest still operating under its original name?
KLM
Its hub is Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and it was founded by Albert Plesman.
Q 02What does the KLM airline name stand for in English?
Royal Dutch Airlines
It is branded internationally as KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
Q 03Australia's Qantas was founded in which year?
1920
It is one of the world's oldest airlines still in operation.
Q 04The acronym QANTAS originally stood for what?
Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services
It is nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo".
Q 05By what nickname is Qantas popularly known?
The Flying Kangaroo
The kangaroo logo first appeared on the Kangaroo Route, its Sydney-to-London service, in 1944.
Q 06The world's first commercial passenger airline, DELAG, carried passengers on what kind of aircraft?
Airships
It flew until 1935, when the airship era was ending.
Q 07Which US airline began in 1925 as the world's first aerial crop-dusting company, Huff Daland Dusters?
Delta Air Lines
The dusters fought boll weevils in cotton fields before the company turned to carrying passengers in 1929.
Q 08Which airline was the unofficial US flag carrier before it collapsed in 1991?
Pan Am
Founded by Juan Trippe in 1927, it ceased operations on December 4, 1991.
Q 09Pan Am used which word for its aircraft names and radio callsigns?
Clipper
Its blue globe logo became one of the most recognised brands in the world.
Q 10Who founded Pan American Airways and led it for four decades?
Juan Trippe
He pioneered transatlantic and transpacific commercial flying.
Q 11Which airline is the world's largest low-cost carrier, flying a single narrow-body type, the 737?
Southwest
It was founded in 1967 by two Texans, a lawyer and a businessman.
Q 12Which Dallas airport gives the low-cost carrier with the NYSE ticker LUV both its home and its name?
Love Field
The NYSE ticker LUV plays on the Love Field name.
Q 13Europe's largest airline by passengers, an ultra-low-cost carrier based in Ireland, is which?
Ryanair
It was founded in 1984 and has been led by Michael O'Leary since 1994.
Q 21What qualification did the earliest stewardesses have to hold?
Registered nurse
The nurse requirement was quietly dropped in later decades.
Q 22Which airliner was the first to be called a "jumbo jet"?
Boeing 747
It first flew on February 9, 1969 and entered service with Pan Am the next year.
Q 23The first jumbo jet entered commercial service in 1970 with which airline?
Pan Am
Pan Am was the launch customer for the aircraft it helped inspire.
Q 24Which engineer led the design of the first jumbo jet?
Q 14The largest airline in the Middle East, based at Dubai International Airport, is which?
Emirates
Founded in 1985, it is the world's biggest operator of two wide-body jets.
Q 15The largest Middle East carrier is the world's biggest operator of which double-deck airliner?
Airbus A380
It is also the largest Boeing 777 operator.
Q 16Founded in 1997, which grouping was the world's first global airline partnership network?
Star Alliance
Its five founders were Air Canada, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways and United.
Q 17Which of these was a founding member of the first global alliance in 1997?
Lufthansa
British Airways belongs to Oneworld and Delta to SkyTeam.
Q 18After the world's two biggest global airline groupings, which is the third?
Oneworld
American Airlines and British Airways are Oneworld members.
Q 19American Airlines launched which pioneering frequent-flyer program in 1981?
AAdvantage
Texas International had introduced a mileage-tracking scheme two years earlier.
Q 20Who was the world's first female flight attendant, hired in 1930?
Ellen Church
Early stewardesses were required to be registered nurses.
Joe Sutter
His team became known as "the Incredibles" for designing the jumbo in under three years.
Q 25The jumbo jet was assembled at the Everett Plant, notable for being what?
The world's largest building by volume
The 747's distinctive upper-deck hump is its most recognisable feature.
Q 26Which airline was the launch customer of the world's largest passenger aircraft in 2007?
Singapore Airlines
Emirates later became the type's biggest operator.
Q 27The airline whose flight attendants are marketed as an elegant "Girl" figure, from a South-East Asian city-state, hubs at which airport?
Changi
The Singapore Girl has fronted its advertising for decades.
Q 28Along with British Airways, which was the only other airline to fly Concorde commercially?
Air France
Each carrier operated seven of the twenty Concordes built.
Q 29In which year was Concorde retired from commercial service?
2003
Rising costs, the 2000 crash and the post-9/11 travel slump ended the supersonic era.
Q 30An IATA airline designator code, like BA or AA, is how many characters long?
Two
The ICAO version is three letters instead.