The United States
will have about 112,000 long-haul scheduled passenger flights this coming winter, with an average of 728 daily. That’s based on examining every planned service based on what carriers have submitted to Cirium. US operators will have approximately 50,000 (45%).
Of the foreign carriers, British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France, Virgin Atlantic, Turkish Airlines, Japan Airlines, All Nippon, Qatar Airways, Emirates, and LATAM are the top 10 for the most flights (30,000 in all). They are the ones who necessarily get most of the attention. But what about the foreign airlines with the fewest services?
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The fewest US long-haul flights
The 10 foreign airlines with the fewest long-haul winter services are shown below. The UK leisure operator TUI Airways is at the bottom and is well behind Edelweiss, the Swiss leisure carrier.
TUI’s position is not because of the number of winter routes—it has the most among the 10 entries—but because of very low frequencies and the very short operating period. Flights exist until the end of November before returning in summer 2025.
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Multiple other carriers, such as Jetstar, Hainan Airlines (including its brand-new around-the-world service), Xiamen Airlines, Sichuan Airlines, and Boliviana, came close to inclusion. If Gulf Air eventually relaunches US flights, a sub-daily operation might mean it features one day.
As usual, using other measures would change the order. Some airlines might also have summer seasonal routes, which are not mentioned. Notice how recently several airlines or routes started.
Airline |
One-way US flights: winter 2024/2025 |
Routes (flights, aircraft); comments relate to October 27-March 29 only, the northern aviation winter season |
---|---|---|
TUI Airways |
14 |
Birmingham, London Gatwick, Manchester-Melbourne, Florida (October/November only; 787-8). Glasgow/Newcastle were scheduled but no longer appear in TUI’s timetable |
Edelweiss |
47 |
Zurich-Tampa (twice-weekly; A340-300); Zurich-Las Vegas (October 27, October 29, and March 28; A340-300) |
Neos |
59 |
Milan Malpensa-New York JFK (twice to three times weekly; 787-9); the route began in 2021, and flights are timed to connect to/from Amristar and Almaty. This is how the carrier continues to serve JFK despite engine problems |
HiSky Europe |
61 |
Bucharest-New York JFK (two to three times weekly; A330-200); the route started in 2024 and marked the carrier’s US entry. |
Sichuan Airlines |
63 |
Chengdu Tianful-Hangzhou-Los Angeles (three times weekly; A350-900) |
Uzbekistan Airways |
78 |
Tashkent-New York JFK (three to four times weekly; 787-8) |
Kuwait Airways |
88 |
Kuwait-New York JFK (four times weekly; 777-300ER); it flew the rare A330-800 to JFK in 2023 |
Vietnam Airlines |
88 |
Ho Chi Minh City-San Francisco (four times weekly; A350-900); the very long route started in late 2021. United is keen to begin flying to Vietnam or Thailand |
Air Serbia |
95 |
Belgrade-New York JFK (two to three weekly; A330-200), Belgrade-Chicago O’Hare (weekly to twice-weekly; A330-200); it returned to O’Hare in 2023 after last serving the airport in the 1990s |
Brussels Airlines |
104 |
Brussels-New York JFK (four to six times weekly; A330-200) |
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Kuwait Airways at JFK
The carrier is one of seven Middle Eastern operators at JFK. It has the fewest flights of them all except Royal Jordanian. The Jordanian flag carrier did not make the table because it has 252 one-way US flights this winter from serving Chicago O’Hare and Detroit because of the significant Levant demand.
Kuwait Airways only serves JFK, although O’Hare was part of its route map from 1997 to 2005 via Amsterdam. While its JFK services previously stopped in Frankfurt (until 2001) and London Heathrow (for many years until 2016), they are now non-stop.
Photo: The Global Guy | Shutterstock
This winter, its four times weekly 777-300ER service is scheduled as follows, with all times local:
- Kuwait-JFK: KU117, 09:00-14:20 (13h 20m block time)
- JFK-Kuwait: KU118, 16:45-12:40+1 (11h 55m)
Where do its New York passengers go?
Looking at the year to July 2024, most of its traffic connected to cities in the Indian Subcontinent, while relatively few people were point-to-point. The top 10 transit origins and destinations were as follows, with seven being in the Subcontinent:
- JFK-Dhaka (via Kuwait); Dhaka is JFK’s largest unserved market
- JFK-Mumbai
- JFK-Delhi
- JFK-Dubai
- JFK-Ahmedabad
- JFK-Jeddah
- JFK-Kochi
- JFK-Islamabad
- JFK-Bangkok
- JFK-Hyderabad