The UK Civil Aviation Authority provides a handy list of passenger traffic on all routes touching the country. In June 2024, the latest month with data when writing, London Heathrow had 1,762,564 roundtrip US passengers – nearly 59,000 daily.
Passenger volume rose by 11.2% compared to before the pandemic in June 2019. The arrival of JetBlue and strong growth by American, United, and Virgin helped. In all, airlines filled 88.9% of June seats. The load factor fell slightly versus before the pandemic as capacity growth outpaced traffic growth, which probably reduced fares and yields.
The 31 US markets: June 2024
American, British Airways, Delta, JetBlue, United, and Virgin operated. Together, they flew to 31 US airports non-stop, down from 32 in 2023, when British Airways served San José.
The following figure summarizes each market by total passengers, with New York JFK number one (what a surprise!) with nearly 309,000 roundtrip passengers and Salt Lake City last. No breakdown by airline is provided. The average seat load factor is also included, highlighting strong or notably below-average results.
* Point-to-point and connecting. Source of data: UK CAA and Cirium. Figure: James Pearson
All three Florida markets (Miami, Orlando, and Tampa) were below the average. Miami and Orlando suffered from double-digit capacity increases year-on-year, with Orlando up by nearly a quarter. No wonder fewer than eight in ten Orlando seats were filled in June. In contrast, Nashville was number one, with 97.1% of seats filled.
Do not read too much into load factor: it is just one performance element and should not be considered in isolation from other factors. It’s important to know how each result is achieved.
How has traffic changed versus 2019?
Using UK CAA data, Heathrow had 1,585,545 roundtrip US passengers in June 2019. Again, this is not just P2P traffic but everyone. Five years later, an additional 131,231 June passengers were transported to/from the UK’s busiest airport.
Comparing 2024 data to 2019 shows that Heathrow has gained flights to Cincinnati, Orlando (a consequence of the move from Gatwick during COVID-19), and Tampa. However, it lost service to Charleston and San José.
* Point-to-point and connecting. Source of data: UK CAA. Figure: James Pearson
Los Angeles grew the most, with average daily take-offs rising from nine to 11. American and Virgin increased frequencies from double to triple daily, while United jumped from daily to double daily. However, Air New Zealand ended its daily fifth freedom service. (Delta previously flew Los Angeles to Heathrow, but only from March 2023 to May 2024, with Virgin replacing it.)
San Diego was firmly first on a percentage basis. Roundtrip traffic rose by a considerable 71.9%. While British Airways has served the city daily for years, it is a record double daily this summer (daily on the 777-200ER and 787-8). It will fall back to daily in the winter (A350-1000).
Notice Detroit, whose June Heathrow passengers have fallen by about half. Unsurprisingly, this is due to flights reduced from double daily (A330-200 and 767-300ER) to daily (A330-200).
Source: Simple Flying
