Some 43 US airports have non-stop scheduled passenger flights to Europe in September. While that is two fewer than in September 2019, weekly departing flights are 3.5% higher than they were.

The US to Europe

According to Cirium data, the US has up to 3,894 weekly departures to Europe this summer month. The network involves 43 US airports – as shown on the following map. (San Juan is included as Puerto Rico is a US territory.)

Obviously, JFK is by far the most served (776 weekly), then Newark (414), Chicago O'Hare (340), Washington Dulles (296), and Boston (273). These five are responsive for more than one in two Europe flights.

Image: GCMap.

At the other extreme are Fairbanks and Oakland. Fairbanks is served by Germany's Condor, with the last flight of the season on September 7th. Using the Boeing 767-300ER, it routes triangularly: Frankfurt-Anchorage-Fairbanks-Frankfurt.

Meanwhile, Oakland sees Azores Airlines' weekly Airbus A330-200 service from Terceira. Using equipment wet-leased from Plus Ultra, it ends for the season on September 20th.

Three airports have gained Europe flights

Comparing September 2023 to September 2019 indicates that three US airports have gained Europe routes when they did not have them in that month four years ago. They are Cleveland (Aer Lingus; see later), Melbourne (TUI from the UK from March 2022), and St Louis (Lufthansa from Frankfurt in June 2022).

Cleveland welcomed Aer Lingus from Dublin on May 19th, 2023, with a four-weekly A321LR operation. It is the first time since October 2018 that the Ohio airport has had Europe routes when Icelandair and Wow Air both served it from Keflavik. Such a competitive battle is now being played out between Aer Lingus and Delta between Minneapolis and Dublin.

But, five airports have lost them...

They are as follows, with the most recent operator, if more than one, indicated:

• Charleston (British Airways from Heathrow until October 2019)
• Kansas City (Icelandair from Keflavik until September 2019)
• Indianapolis (Delta to Paris CDG until March 2020)
• Providence (Norwegian to Dublin until September 2019)
• Sanford (TUI from the UK, replaced by Melbourne)

Photo: kamilpetran I Shutterstock.

They include Norwegian to Providence, served for the Greater Boston area. Using the 737-800 and MAX 8, Norwegian flew to Providence between 2017 and 2019 with six routes: Belfast, Bergen, Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Shannon. Dublin was the last to go, and US DOT T-100 data shows it had the most passengers (134,000).

San Jose service ends soon

Looking ahead to October, San Jose, California, loses Europe service, and it is not a seasonal exit. While this is not news – it has been known for a while – British Airways ends daily flights from London Heathrow on October 14th. It continues to use the low-premium 787-8.

Photo: Fasttailwind I Shutterstock.

Inaugurated in May 2016, the 5,369-mile (8,641 km) link has primarily used the higher-premium 787-9. Between May 2016 and May 2023, some 501,000 passengers were transported with a low average seat load factor of 73.3%. It was dragged down by the aftereffects of the pandemic, especially in this specific business-driven market, and poor winter loads.

What airports would you like to secure Europe service? Let us know in the comments.

Sources: OAG, US DOT T-100, Flightradar24.com, Google Flights.