Airlines
- Delta Air Lines38%
- Southwest Airlines24%
- JetBlue7%
The Kesterley Index
Who AI sends your customers to.
AI has its own league table for your market, and it may not be the one you know. Twenty categories, free to read and free to quote.
We have not measured yet. A Position Map measures your brand on your buyers' questions, and we add it to the next edition of the Index. From $2,500.
Add my brandWhat AI names first in the United States.
Across ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude together.
Smartphones
- Apple31%
- Samsung23%
- Google Pixel17%
Laptops
- Apple38%
- Lenovo29%
- Acer8%
Car insurance
- USAA26%
- State Farm17%
- Progressive15%
Running shoes
- Brooks42%
- Nike12%
- Asics11%
Smart rings and fitness watches
- Oura29%
- Apple Watch24%
- Garmin23%
Construction management software
- Procore45%
- Buildertrend21%
- JobTread7%
Property management software
- AppFolio18%
- Buildium17%
- Yardi15%
Online and part-time MBA programs
- IU Kelley Direct18%
- UNC Kenan-Flagler12%
- UIUC Gies iMBA11%
United States
Airlines
Spirit Airlines stopped flying on May 2. AI still offers it.
Measured without web search. The search run comes in the next edition.
The brands AI names first most often, plus any this finding is about.
Named firstNamed at all
| Brand | Named first | Named at all |
|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 78% | |
| Southwest Airlines | 65% | |
| JetBlue | 39% | |
| 29% | ||
| Alaska Airlines | 31% | |
| United Airlines | 48% | |
| Frontier Airlines | 30% | |
| SkyWest | 5% | |
| Cape Air | 4% | |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 9% | |
| American Airlines | 40% | |
| Allegiant | 18% | |
| Contour Airlines | 2% | |
| Boutique Air | 2% | |
| Breeze Airways | 7% | |
| Avelo Airlines | 4% | |
| Southern Airways Express | 2% | |
| Mokulele Airlines | 2% | |
| Sun Country Airlines | 1% | |
| JSX | <1% | |
| None of the tracked brands |
720 answers across ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude together, October 2026. These are AI answers, not market shares. The three assistants share a favorite on 3 of 8 questions.
An AI model read all 49 answers with web search that name Spirit, one by one, to written rules. Three of its 13 first mentions with web search are warnings that it closed. "United" alone is hard to tell from "United States", so United is undercounted by about one point.
By assistant, and on your own buyers' questions: that is a Position Map. See a Position Map
With web search · All eight questions
| Brand | Named first | Named at all |
|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 73% | |
| Southwest Airlines | 62% | |
| JetBlue | 42% | |
| American Airlines | 49% | |
| Alaska Airlines | 35% | |
| Frontier Airlines | 26% | |
| 17% | ||
| Hawaiian Airlines | 10% | |
| SkyWest | 7% | |
| Cape Air | 5% | |
| United Airlines | 46% | |
| Allegiant | 21% | |
| Breeze Airways | 7% | |
| Avelo Airlines | 7% | |
| Boutique Air | 2% | |
| Mokulele Airlines | 2% | |
| Southern Airways Express | 2% | |
| Contour Airlines | 2% | |
| Sun Country Airlines | 1% | |
| None of the tracked brands |
287 answers across ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude together, October 2026. These are AI answers, not market shares. The three assistants share a favorite on 3 of 8 questions.
Who sells, and who AI names first.
By market size
By AI's first picks
- 1Delta17.9%
- 2American17.7%
- 3United17.2%
- 4Southwest17.1%
- 5Alaska7.1%
- 6JetBlue4.6%
- 7Frontier3.9%
- 8SkyWest2.6%
- 1Delta Air Lines38%
- 2Southwest Airlines24%
- 3JetBlue7%
- 4
Spirit AirlinesStopped flying on May 2, 2026.5% - 5Alaska Airlines5%
- 6United Airlines3%
- 7Frontier Airlines3%
- 8SkyWest3%
- =11American Airlines<1%
Places count every brand AI names, so the numbers can jump. "=" is a tie. "–" means AI never names it first.
Delta, American, United and Southwest each carry about 17 to 18% of US domestic traffic. AI puts Delta first in 38% of answers without web search and 29% with it, American in under 1% and 7%, United in 3% and 2%.
US Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, August 2025 to July 2026.
What stood out.
How to read it
- From memory
- AI answers from what it already knows, without searching the web.
- With web search
- AI searches the web first, then answers.
- Named first
- the share of answers where this brand comes before any other.
- Named at all
- the share of answers that mention it.
These are AI answers, not market shares. They show what AI tells people who ask, not what people buy. We count the first brand an answer names. In a sample of 320 answers that an AI model classified one by one to written rules, 9 in 10 offer that brand as a choice: about half of those as the clear pick, the rest as the first of several. In the remainder it is only an example or a warning.
Not here?
Your brand or your market is not on the list? Order a Position Map for it. We add it to the next edition, with the same questions for every brand, and publish the result whatever it shows. From $2,500.
Add my brandEdition 1, Q4 2026. Next edition: January 2027.
Eight buying questions per market, each asked in six wordings of ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude: five times without web search (720 answers per market, 14,400 in all) and twice with it (288 per market, 4,600 in all, in sixteen of the twenty markets so far). Measured 25 to 30 October 2026. Kesterley.
The full data as one file: write to hello@kesterley.com and we send it within two business days.