As the aviation winter season kicks off, it's a good time to pause to see what is scheduled and bookable between Heathrow and the US next summer. On the first Saturday of August 2022, a randomly chosen date, there are 113 outbound flights, up from 108 on the same day in 2019. Of course, things can change, but it is unlikely to change much.
26 US routes on the first Saturday of August
The first Saturday of next August is the 6th. On that one specific day, 26 US routes will be operated across five airlines. The situation changes slightly from day to day, so it is simply a snapshot of August 6th as of now.
Some 59,382 round trip seats are planned that day, Cirium data indicates, up by 3.7% versus the first Saturday of August 2019. This is despite the retirement of British Airways' B747-400s that were then the most commonly deployed type from Heathrow to the US. The increase is from a 4.7% rise in flights, offset by a very marginal decline in seats per flight (265 to 263).
With 20 departures, JFK is overwhelmingly the primary destination, and the number of flights is unchanged from 2019. While JetBlue has JFK-Gatwick bookable for next August, JFK-Heathrow currently isn't bookable beyond the end of winter 2021 as it does not yet have summer 2022 slots. As such, it isn't included in the figure below.
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Seven routes have more flights than previously
Over one-quarter of US routes have more flights planned on this day in 2022 than they did in 2019. Part of this is from Orlando switching from Gatwick. However, Gatwick's Chief Commercial Officer recently told this author that it is "reasonably likely" that Virgin will return to Gatwick next year.
Meanwhile, Boston and Seattle are both up by two departures apiece. American introduced Seattle-Heathrow on March 30th, 2021, and Delta on April 1st. Virgin will resume Seattle on March 1st, 2022, meaning four airlines will serve the airport pair. Boston welcomed American on June 3rd, and United is set to begin on March 26th next year.
- Heathrow to Orlando: 3 more flights than on the first Sat. in August 2019 (from zero)
- Boston: +2
- Seattle: +2
- Newark: +1
- San Francisco: +1
- Dallas: +1
- Denver: +1
In contrast to those seven routes, Los Angeles, Miami, and Detroit have one less flight each. Meanwhile, Salt Lake City and Portland (Oregon) are not scheduled to be served in 2022, and there is presently no indication when or if they'll return. And while New Orleans will no longer have Saturday service, it will still be operating three-weekly – just not on the day in question.
Five airlines for now
With over one-third of the daily departures, British Airways is very much the leading operator. When transatlantic joint-venture partner American is added, the pair collectively have 56% of all Heathrow-US flights, analyzing Cirum data shows. They have well over double that of Delta and Virgin (one-quarter).
- BA: 40 outbound flights across 22 routes. In order of flights: JFK, Boston, Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle, San Francisco, Washington, Newark, Miami, Chicago, Austin, Orlando, San Jose, Atlanta, Las Vegas, San Diego, Baltimore, Dallas, Phoenix, Nashville, Denver, Philadelphia
- American, 23 departures and 11 routes: Chicago, Dallas, JFK, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, Seattle, Boston, Raleigh Durham
- United, 22 flights and eight routes: Newark, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, Houston, Boston, Los Angeles
- Virgin Atlantic, 20 departures and 10 routes: JFK, Los Angeles, Orlando, Boston, San Francisco, Washington, Las Vegas, Miami, Seattle, Atlanta
- Delta, eight flights and six routes: Atlanta, JFK, Minneapolis, Detroit, Seattle, Boston
What's your view about the Heathrow to US market? Let us know in the comments.