Early on in the life of the Lycos 50, we did a bonus list of the top airlines searched online. Two years have gone by, so we thought we would revisit and expand on that list. When the numbers come out, it looks like we have a new airline champion: Southwest Airlines.
When we ranked airlines in 1999, United Airlines came out as the top dog, with Southwest at #2. In the last two years, however, Southwest has passed all other airlines by a significant amount. No other airline gets more than two-thirds as many searches as Southwest.
Here are the top 20 airlines searched on Lycos, ranked by the percentage of searches they get in comparison to Southwest. In other words, #2 American Airlines gets 67 percent as many searches as Southwest.
100% SOUTHWEST AIRLINES
67% AMERICAN AIRLINES
53% UNITED AIRLINES
45% DELTA AIRLINES
44% NORTHWEST AIRLINES
41% US AIR
38% CONTINENTAL AIRLINES
25% RYANAIR
23% AIR CANADA
23% BRITISH AIRWAYS
16% ALASKA AIRLINES
14% TWA
13% AMERICA WEST AIRLINES
12% AIR TRAN
10% VIRGIN ATLANTIC
10% JET BLUE
9% MIDWAY AIRLINES
9% AIR FRANCE
7% SPIRIT AIRLINES
7% LUFTHANSA
Perhaps the most surprising entry on this list is RyanAir. Ryanair is a discount European airline based in Ireland, which sells a lot of tickets through its website. It seems to be enormously popular among Lycos users in England and Ireland. It didn't make our 1999 list, but is now #8.
Another riser over the past two years has been US Airways. US Air is currently #6 but was not in the top ten back in 1999.
Don't forget that you can book tickets through a number of these airlines, and get all kinds of travel information, through our buddies at Lycos Travel.
TOMORROW: Bottom feeders ate your momma.
