Airline Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
119 free Airline trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 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 119 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which airline, founded in 1919, is the oldest still operating under its original name?
KLM
KLM, founded by Albert Plesman, is the oldest airline operating under its original name; its hub is Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
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
Qantas was registered on 16 November 1920, making it one of the world's oldest airlines.
Q 04The acronym QANTAS originally stood for what?
Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services
Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services was the company's registered name, and its initials became the Qantas brand.
Q 05By what nickname is Qantas popularly known?
The Flying Kangaroo
The Flying Kangaroo nickname comes from the leaping kangaroo emblem painted on the tails of Qantas aircraft.
Q 06The world's first commercial passenger airline, DELAG, carried passengers on what kind of aircraft?
Airships
Airships were DELAG's aircraft: founded in 1909, the German company carried fare-paying passengers on Zeppelins until 1935.
Q 07Which US airline began in 1925 as the world's first aerial crop-dusting company, Huff Daland Dusters?
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines grew out of Huff Daland Dusters, whose aircraft sprayed cotton fields against the boll weevil from Monroe, Louisiana, before the company turned to passengers.
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
Clipper was the airline's radio callsign and the prefix for every aircraft name, a legacy of its 1930s flying boats such as the China Clipper.
Q 10Who founded Pan American Airways and led it for four decades?
Juan Trippe
Juan Trippe founded the airline in 1927 and ran it until 1968, pioneering transatlantic and transpacific commercial flying.
Q 11Which US low-cost carrier flies an all-Boeing 737 fleet?
Southwest
Southwest operates an all-Boeing 737 fleet, which keeps crew training and maintenance simple; the Texas carrier was founded in 1967.
Q 12Europe's largest airline by passengers, an ultra-low-cost carrier based in Ireland, is which?
Ryanair
Ryanair, founded in 1984, grew from a single Waterford-Gatwick route into the continent's biggest airline by passenger numbers.
Q 13The largest airline in the Middle East, based at Dubai International Airport, is which?
Emirates
Emirates, founded in 1985 and owned by the Dubai government, flies an all-wide-body fleet from Dubai International Airport.
Q 21Which airliner was the first to be called a "jumbo jet"?
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747, which first flew on 9 February 1969, was the first wide-body airliner and earned the 'jumbo jet' nickname.
Q 22Which airline was the launch customer of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner?
All Nippon Airways
All Nippon Airways was the 787's launch customer, ordering 50 in 2004 and flying the first commercial Dreamliner service, Tokyo to Hong Kong, in October 2011.
Q 23Which engineer led the design of the first jumbo jet?
Joe Sutter
Joe Sutter led the 747 design team, nicknamed 'the Incredibles', which took the jumbo from the 1966 launch order to first flight in 1969.
Q 14The largest Middle East carrier is the world's biggest operator of which double-deck airliner?
Airbus A380
The Dubai-based carrier's Airbus A380 fleet passed 100 aircraft, far more than any other operator of the double-deck superjumbo.
Q 15Founded in 1997, which grouping was the world's first global airline partnership network?
Star Alliance
Star Alliance, launched in May 1997, was the first worldwide airline alliance; Air Canada, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways and United were among its founders.
Q 16Which of these was a founding member of the first global alliance in 1997?
Lufthansa
Lufthansa was one of the founding carriers of the 1997 alliance, alongside Air Canada, SAS, Thai Airways and United.
Q 17After the world's two biggest global airline groupings, which is the third?
Oneworld
American Airlines and British Airways are Oneworld members.
Q 18Which frequent-flyer program, launched on 1 May 1981, is considered the first modern airline loyalty scheme?
AAdvantage
AAdvantage, launched on 1 May 1981 by the carrier whose initials it carries, is widely credited as the first modern frequent-flyer program; Texas International had tracked mileage since 1979.
Q 19Who was the world's first female flight attendant, hired in 1930?
Ellen Church
Ellen Church persuaded Boeing Air Transport to hire her and flew as the world's first stewardess on 15 May 1930.
Q 20What qualification did the earliest stewardesses have to hold?
Registered nurse
Registered nurse status was required of United's first stewardesses from 1930; the rule lapsed during the Second World War when nurses were needed elsewhere.
Q 24The jumbo jet was assembled at the Everett Plant, notable for being what?
The world's largest building by volume
The world's largest building by volume, Boeing's Everett factory encloses about 13.3 million cubic metres and was built in the late 1960s for the 747.
Q 25Which airline was the launch customer of the world's largest passenger aircraft in 2007?
Singapore Airlines
Singapore Airlines took the first delivery of the double-deck superjumbo and flew it from Singapore to Sydney on 25 October 2007.
Q 26The airline whose flight attendants are marketed as an elegant "Girl" figure, from a South-East Asian city-state, hubs at which airport?
Changi
Changi Airport, opened in 1981, is the home base of the carrier behind the Singapore Girl advertising icon.
Q 27Besides British Airways, which airline bought and flew its own fleet of Concordes?
Air France
Air France flew Concorde from Paris from 1976, operating seven of the supersonic jets alongside British Airways' seven.
Q 28In which year was Concorde retired from commercial service?
2003
2003 saw Concorde's final commercial flights, the last British Airways service landing at Heathrow on 24 October, after rising costs, the 2000 crash and the post-9/11 slump.
Q 29How many characters long is an IATA airline designator code?
Two
Two characters make up an IATA airline designator, such as BA for British Airways; the codes appear on tickets and flight numbers.
Q 30How many letters long is an ICAO airline designator?
Three
Three letters make up an ICAO airline designator, used in flight plans and air-traffic control rather than on tickets.