I'm writing this article on August 12th. It's a special day for London to New York City, as Norse Atlantic's first flight from London Gatwick to JFK takes off, its first service from the UK. I'll be on it and will report from it. It comes a week after JetBlue inaugurated Gatwick to Boston.

London-NYC: 27 flights today

As you know, the London to NYC market is enormous. In fact, on August 12th, the city pair has 27 flights. That's nearly twice as many as Paris to NYC, the second most-served long-haul market. (Heathrow to JFK would be firmly first, just on its own.)

According to OAG data, London-NYC also ranks number one by long-haul seats for sale (a whopping 13,138 this day) and – across every route globally – by available seat miles (ASMs; seats x distance). It ranks first globally by ASMs because of the combination of high frequency, the large numbers of seats, and relatively big aircraft (an average of 243 seats per flight).

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Gatwick gets 3rd airline to JFK

August 12th marks the beginning of Norse Atlantic at Gatwick and its first US route from the airport. It has a 1x daily service to JFK using the B787-9, with its first departure leaving at 13:30. Norse Atlantic's entry at Gatwick – and indeed the carrier's whole existence – follows the cessation of Norwegian.

Norse Atlantic joins British Airways and JetBlue to JFK, each with 1x daily. It is the first time in 14 years that Gatwick-NYC has had three+ airlines. The last time was in 2008, with BA (JFK), Continental (Newark), Delta (JFK), and Zoom (JFK) all operating.

Before that, in 2007, with Continental (Newark), Delta (JFK), and Zoom (JFK). Then EU-US open skies arrived, which enabled easier access to Heathrow, significantly but temporarily impacting Gatwick service.

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A look at London-NYC flights

Seven airlines have London-NYC flights on August 12th, as summarized in the table. British Airways is the market leader, with nine of the 27 daily services. If alliances are examined, oneworld (BA and American) obviously dominates, with virtually half (48%) of flights.

It'll rise to 34

While 27 daily flights might seem a lot – some hours have three or four departures to NYC – it'll gradually rise to 34 daily from May 1st, subject to any changes. While Norse has not yet put UK flights on sale past the end of October, they'll go live in the next couple of weeks, according to the airline. Whether they'll be operated by its forthcoming UK air operator's certificate remains to be seen.

BA's Heathrow-JFK offering will rise to 7x daily, the same as United's Heathrow-Newark. Virgin will be 6x daily to JFK, and JetBlue 2x daily between JFK and Gatwick. This excludes any potential frequency increase by Norse. After all, Norwegian once had 3x daily Gatwick-JFK, albeit pre-JetBlue. With recessions and a high level of capacity, reducing yield performance, flight reductions are possible.

Thirty-four daily flights will be the joint-highest number ever, having thus far occurred on just three occasions in October 2017. Will it increase further and surpass the previous record? Or will airlines that have grown frequencies reevaluate?

Which is your preferred airline between London and NYC? Let us know in the comments.