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Last Week in North America – Monday 21 February 2022

Posted on | Airlines, Airports, News & Analysis, North America, Top Story

Last Week Americas 21st Feb

The latest TSA passenger statistics reveal that US demand for air travel last week was between 80% and 85% of the level achieved during the same period in 2019. This is the second week in a row that this has been the rate of recovery. Will it reach 90% (or even better) by the start of the summer season? Keep checking in with Air Service One to find out.

Breeze and Avelo lead way for capacity increase in February

Analysis of Cirium data for February 2022 (and February 2020, the last non-pandemic influenced month for US air travel), reveals which are the airlines that have added the most seat capacity from US airports. The country’s two newest major airline start-ups, Breeze and Avelo, lead the way with over 90,000 monthly seats from US airports, compared with none two years ago. Next up are two Mexican carriers, Vivaaerobus and Volaris. Among well established major US carriers only Allegiant, Sun Country and Frontier have added capacity compared with February 2020.

A handful of foreign flag-carriers make the rankings, with Finnair leading the way thanks to its new long-haul services to the US from Stockholm. Global carriers Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines have both grown their US capacities by just under 20% compared with two years ago. During that time Qatar Airways has added new flights from Doha to San Francisco (December 2020) and Seattle/Tacoma (January 2021), while Turkish Airlines has added new non-stop service from Istanbul IST to both Dallas/Fort Worth (September 2021) and New York EWR (May 2021).

Top 15 airlines in US for additional seats in Feb 22

At the other end of the rankings, the airlines that have seen the biggest reduction in capacity are also the biggest US carriers; Delta down 2.82m seats (down 17%), United down 2.01m seats (down 15%), American down 1.73m seats (down 9%) and Southwest down 1.24m seats (down 8%).

Want more information on:

  • Latest US airport passenger figures (TSA) and comparison with 2019?
  • North American seat capacity changes made since last week for February, March and April?
  • New routes launched in North America during the last seven days?
  • Latest Canadian airport passenger figures (CATSA) and comparison with 2019?

If so, then check out our weekly Last Week in North America report which can be downloaded here.