The capacity is up mainly with the United States' big three airlines, compromised of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines. These carriers have remained busy throughout the northern hemisphere summer, with growth for the most part across the continent.

American Airlines remains committed to its home in Dallas, with a 10% increase in capacity compared to 2022, with it being the sole hub under its cap with more than ten million available seats this far in 2023. When comparing this with pre-pandemic, growth is currently at a modest 6%.

Photo: Daniel Martínez Garbuno | Simple Flying

The big three's busiest hubs

While Dallas remains popular for American Airlines, Denver has taken the crown for United Airlines, with 5.6 million seats on offer this year, a 14% improvement compared to 2022. This represents an impressive 19% improvement when compared to pre-pandemic.

Unsurprisingly, Delta Air Lines home in Atlanta has remained the busiest spot by far, with over 12 million seats available for travelers; this leads the pack at Delta by almost triple, with the next closest competitor Minneapolis, with 3.9 million.

Photo: MC MEDIASTUDIO | Shutterstock

While the post-pandemic travel boom is in full effect, airlines have increased capacity across the board, with American Airlines in Charlotte increasing capacity by 8% compared to last year, now providing 7.19 million seats to North Carolina's busiest airport, Miami comes in third for American, with 4.4 million seats on offer, which is a similar number when compared to this time last year, however 6% improvement to what was on offer before the arrival of COVID-19.

United and Delta are keeping busy.

Star-Alliance member, United Airlines, has Denver leading the pack, with Chicago a close second with 5.5 million seats up for grabs this year, a drop of 4% compared to pre-pandemic but a 14% improvement on a subdued 2022. Newark is the third in the ranks for the carrier, with 5.3 million seats on offer, an impressive 20% improvement on last year and a 14% increase compared to before COVID. This was the leader across all results.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

Delta's busiest ports include Atlanta and Minneapolis, as mentioned above, with Detroit coming in third with 3.5 million available seats this year, a 19% drop from pre-pandemic. This does, however, result in an 11% growth in 2022. Salt Lake City, Los Angles, and New York La Guardia round off the carrier's top 6 airports, with the latter three all resulting in over two million seats for 2023.

The losers

Today there aren't all winners, with American Airlines drastically dropping capacity at four of its top ten airports; Chicago has seen a 5% drop in power compared to last year and 28% when looking at figures against pre-pandemic levels. Philadelphia, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and New York La Guardia all will miss out, with the most shocking being Los Angeles which has seen a 32% drop in operations when comparing this year to life before COVID.

Sources: Cirium