How The Current US-Europe Flight Offering Compares To 2019

British Airways was the largest European airline flying to the United States (which saw a 6% decrease over that period). The second-largest European airline was Lufthansa, whose flights fell almost 7%.

Airlines operating the most flights between the US and Europe (Nov. 2024):

United Airlines: 3,851 Delta Air Lines: 3,183 British Airways: 2,435 American Airlines: 2,213 Lufthansa: 1,590

The transatlantic route is one of the busiest international routes in the world. According to OAG, the New York JFK Airport to London Heathrow Airport air route is the eighth busiest in the world with 3.9 million seats in 2023. It is also the busiest intercontinental route in the world – discounting the Cairo to Jeddah route with 4.8 million seats – which is technically between Africa and Asia (although still within the Middle East).

Photo: British Airways

Many aviation innovations developed on the transatlantic, including the age of long-ranged Zeppelin airships and the supersonic Concorde. It is possible that Boom’s Overture supersonic passenger jet will return supersonic travel to the London—New York route by the end of the decade.

The transatlantic route between the East Coast and Western Europe is only medium-haul, allowing Delta Air Lines to operate the narrow-bodied Boeing 757 on these shorter routes.

Russian and Ukrainian flights have disappeared

The Russian flag carrier Aeroflot operated 226 flights to the United States in the month of November 2019. However, since the West placed sanctions on Russia in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the airline has been banned from flying in US airspace, and flights have dropped to zero.

Photo: fifg | shuttertstock

Ukraine International, the former airline of Ukraine, has ceased operations and gone bankrupt in the wake of the Russian invasion (and Ukrainian airspace remains closed to all commercial aviation). In November 2019, there were 41 flights.

Related 5 Years On: How Today’s US-South America Airline Route Offering Compares To 2019

Flights between the United States and South America have more than recovered from their pre-pandemic numbers five years ago.

Change in US-based transatlantic flights

Many US-based airlines do not fly to Europe—previously, it was only American, Delta, and United. The others, like JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, and Frontier, focus on domestic flights and America’s near-abroad leisure destinations like the Caribbean. However, JetBlue has now started operating flights to Europe (as well as to Canada). Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines do not fly transatlantic but the do off international flights to other destinations.

JetBlue now has flights to Ireland (Dublin), France (Charles de Gaulle), the Netherlands (Schiphol), and the United Kingdom (Edinburgh, London-Gatwick, London-Heathrow). Currently, JetBlue only flies to Vancouver in Canada. It is unclear if Southwest will ever fly to Canada or to Europe. Currently, Southwest lacks the aircraft to fly to Europe (it only operates Boeing 737s), and its system is not in place to handle foreign currencies.

US-based airlines:

November 2019

November 2024

Change

American Airlines:

2,282

2,213

-3%

JetBlue:

0

358

+100%

Delta Air Lines:

2,718

3,183

+17%

United Airlines:

3,196

3,851

+20.5%

Photo: Ronen Fefer | Shutterstock

Most flights connecting the United States with Europe are not operated by US-based airlines—of the 23,938 flights scheduled for November 2024, only 9,605, or 40%, were American.

Related How Has The Flight Offering Between The US & Central America Changed In Recent Years?

Flights to Central America have increased compared to pre-pandemic numbers, including to Costa Rica’s leisure destinations.

More significant changes elsewhere
Flights are up to South/Central America, Mexico, Africa

Overall, the flight change to Europe relative to the eve of the pandemic is unremarkable. By contrast, US flights to Africa are up 33% (although from a low base—640 monthly flights to 852 monthly flights). The US has flights to around seven countries in Africa.

Photo: Mihn K Tran | Shutterstock

Flights to South America are up by 11%, although seating capacity has risen 17%. Many more Americans seem to be going on vacation to Mexico, as flights are up 25% (and seating capacity by 43%) from November 2019. Much of the increase went to Mexico’s tourist capital of Cancun.

Change in US international flights 2019/2024:

Europe: +6% South America: +11% Central America: +18% Mexico: +25% Africa: +33% China: -74%

Meanwhile, flights to Central America have increased by 18%, and seating capacity has increased by 27%.

Flights are down to China

Photo: Q world | Shutterstock

But US flights are not up to all international destinations. One major outlier is China, where flights have fallen by 74% for a range of reasons (including political tensions, the closure of Russian air space, and other factors). Flights between China and Canada have cratered 91% over the same period.

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Publish date : 2024-11-02 22:03:00

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