Summary
- With over 600,000 departing flights and almost 87 million seats, New York City is one of the world’s largest airline markets.
- United Airlines offers over 21 million seats to the city, the majority going to Newark Liberty International Airport.
- Despite not having a widebody fleet, JetBlue offers almost 14 million scheduled seats.
Article first appeared on Cirium blog.
With three major airports welcoming millions of passengers and partnering with many airlines, New York City is undeniably home to one of the world’s largest airline markets. Flying from this city means passengers have over 600,000 departing flights to select from, equivalent to almost 87 million seats and more than 163 billion available seat miles.
These numbers signify the collective capacities for all of New York’s three airports – John F. Kennedy International, Newark International, and LaGuardia, for the 12 months through August this year. Although all three airports are quite capacity-constrained, the numbers continue to grow as airlines compensate with bigger aircraft. So then, what are some of the city’s most prominent airlines?
1 United Airlines
According to Cirium, Newark Liberty International Airport has seen the most progressive capacity growth of the three airports, especially from a ten-year perspective. The airport’s seat capacity rose by approximately 40%, while flight departures were up by about 6% – meaning the marginal number of additional flights over the decade brought with them a staggering amount of new seats to the airport near the New Jersey/New York border.
Photo: EQRoy | Shutterstock
With this airport as its hub, United Airlines is New York’s largest carrier by scheduled seat capacities for the 12 months through August this year. Boasting an overwhelming 21,030,863 seats for NYC during this period, it’s worth noting the Star Alliance member has offered fewer flight frequencies on routes to and from Newark International Airport.
The compensation comes from using widebodies like the Boeing 777 and 787 instead of the previously utilized narrowbodies. In 2013, United Airlines mainly operated the Boeing 737s from Newark to San Francisco. But starting from the fourth quarter of this year, the airline will bring out the bigger aircraft to offer just a bit more seat capacity despite a 30% reduction in flight frequencies.
2 Delta Air Lines
Compared to Newark International Airport, John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia only saw 24% and 14% seat capacity growth, respectively. One of the most prominent airlines at these two airports is New York’s second-largest carrier, Delta Air Lines. The airline offered an estimated 19,774,200 scheduled seats for the 12 months to August this year, just slightly below the 21 million seats to be found with United Airlines.
Photo: Karolis Kavolelis | Shutterstock
Similar to United Airlines, the SkyTeam alliance member also upgraded many domestic routes by utilizing plenty of widebody aircraft fleets, such as the Airbus A330-200, A330-300, A330neo, A350-900, Boeing 767-300, 767-400ER. While some routes had only one widebody flight service, some had three, four, seven, and even up to eight weekly services – highlighting how Delta Air Lines has been significantly increasing seat capacity from New York.
3 JetBlue
As opposed to the other two carriers, JetBlue ranking third doesn’t have anything to do with a compensated widebody fleet. The New York-based airline has only single-aisle aircraft yet still manages to boast 13,932,352 scheduled seats over the last 12 months. For airlines like JetBlue, it all boils down to vast network expansions, and there were plenty during this period – primarily due to the airline’s Northeast Alliance with American Airlines.
Although the Northeast Alliance has since ended, massive expansions did play a significant role in the airline’s growth in New York. This year alone, these developments included flights from LaGuardia Airport to Atlanta, Bermuda, Hyannis, and Nassau. Then, JetBlue launched flights to Aruba and Montego Bay from Newark International Airport.
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Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
And finally, from John F. Kennedy International Airport, the airline flies to Paris and Amsterdam, with more new routes expected to commence later this year, including St. Kitts and Nevis. As a self-proclaimed leader at this airport, JetBlue will soon serve nearly 30 countries from JFK, usually offering up to 192 departures per day during peak periods.
4 American Airlines
When the Northeast Alliance still existed, American Airlines aimed to build up New York as a long-haul gateway, as JetBlue would provide most of the feed for such flights. While American Airlines also has a domestic presence in New York, it is smaller than its two major competitors, yet still enough to allow the airline to offer approximately 11,522,912 scheduled seats over the last 12 months.
Photo: NYC Russ | Shutterstock
Now that JetBlue is out of the picture, seat capacities offered by American Airlines might change in the following years. Depending on whether the oneworld alliance member sees fit to increase its current amount of flight services out of New York, maintain them, or decrease them should operations eventually become too challenging to fill. But regardless of the outcome, the airline will likely remain the city’s fourth-largest carrier, at least for a while.
5 Spirit Airlines
That assurance comes as Spirit Airlines rounds off the top five biggest carriers in New York by scheduled seat capacity, with about 2,777,806 offered for the 12 months to August this year – a far cry from the above four carriers. Although the low-cost carrier seems minor, only operating out of LaGuardia Airport and Newark International Airport, it has gradually grown with various expansion attempts.
Photo: Spirit Airlines
However, the ongoing much-disputed merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines could change things. All of the budget carrier’s holdings at LaGuardia would be sold to Frontier Airlines per the conditions of closing the merger transactions, and all of Spirit Airlines’ Newark Liberty International Airport holdings would be divestiture to Allegiant Air. That said, these are all still subject to approval by the relevant authorities.
Article first appeared on Cirium blog.