Summary

  • United Airlines is the number one operator by flights in August, but not by seats.
  • It has grown services by a staggering 31% compared to August 2019.
  • Turkish Airlines has doubled in size, while TAP Air Portugal isn’t far away.

Approximately 50 scheduled passenger airlines plan North America-Europe flights in August. They’ll have ~5,314 weekly departures (double for both ways), or about 759 daily. Flights have risen by a robust 7% compared to August 2019, more than double the global rate. Things would be different if seats or available seat miles (ASMs) were analyzed instead.

The top 20 carriers

United has more departures than any other operator. It was behind Delta in August 2019, but United’s considerable growth of 31% – six times more than Delta – propelled it upward. United’s European network has risen from 62 routes to 75.

Top 20 North America-Europe airlines August 2024-1

Source: Cirium. Figure: James Pearson

Despite the change, United would still be second to Delta if seats for sale were examined. Delta’s Europe-bound seats per flight average 255, against 236 for its Star Alliance competitor. This is partly influenced by United’s use of Boeing 757-200ERs and low-capacity, high-premium 767-300ERs.

What about other changes?

JetBlue entered the transatlantic market in 2019, has 91 weekly outbound flights, and ranks 17th. (Its low-capacity A321LRs means it is lower in seats and ASMs.)

While Norwegian no longer operates long-haul, it was seventh five years ago with 214 weekly departures. At that time, it had more flights than Air France. Its effective successor, Norse Atlantic, is 21st, one place before Aeromexico.

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Where each variant is deployed couldn’t be more different.

Turkish Airlines has doubled in size (+108%), and TAP is not far behind (+77%). As TAP’s North American network only has one more route than in 2019 (Lisbon-Montreal, which started in 2020), it’s nearly entirely about increased frequencies from its Airbus A321LRs, reducing North American seats per flight from 279 to 218.

Several TAP routes are now double daily, which would not be economically feasible without such a narrowbody’s capacity, efficiency, and range. There are fewer North American flights in the less demanded winter, during which aircraft are redeployed.

Turkish and TAP are among 13 of the 20 largest carriers to have expanded. However, six, including American and Air Canada, have fewer flights than before. Because of their capacity discipline, they hope to benefit from stronger peak summer yields.

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Some 85% of summer services are from the UK to just two countries.

A quick look at Turkish Airlines

Readers might wonder why the carrier is included, but its Istanbul Airport hub is on the European side of the great Bosphorus. Turkish Airlines has 175 weekly North American departures, up from 84 in August 2019, and 18 routes, up from 11.

TK DEN1

Photo: Turkish Airlines

Along with multiple frequency increases, flights started to Cancun (via Mexico City), Dallas Fort Worth, Denver, Mexico City (via Cancun to Türkiye), Newark (which resumed after 27 years), Seattle, and Vancouver. The most recent addition was Denver in June 2024.

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