New York's John F. Kennedy (JFK) is the US' seventh-busiest airport by scheduled passenger flights this July-September (Q3). Not surprisingly, it falls to 18th place domestically, obviously because of LaGuardia in particular, but also Newark.
JFK is the first country-wide for international service. It has flights by 60+ international operators, as well as American, Delta, and JetBlue. While my first of three JFK articles looked at its top destinations, I now explore the airport's leading airlines.
JFK's leading ten airlines
While results would differ if domestic and international were separated, the following table summarizes JFK's whole passenger operation. It is based on flights, not seats, ASKs, or passengers.
With more than one in every three flights, helped by fewer seats per flight, Delta is solidly first, based on OAG data. While JetBlue is second in itself, when added to Northeast Alliance partner American, the pair has 42.37%.
Airline | % of JFK's July-September passenger flights | Avg. daily departures** | JFK non-stop routes** |
|---|---|---|---|
Delta | 35.55% | 226 | 95 routes |
JetBlue | 27.23% | 173 | 83 routes |
American | 15.14% | 96 | 42 routes |
Alaska Airlines | 1.88% | 12 | Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle |
Avianca (all AOCs) | 1.45% | 9 | 10 routes (incl. one-stop, same flight number to San Jose) |
British Airways | 1.41% | 9 | London Heathrow, Gatwick |
Virgin Atlantic | 1.10% | 7 | London Heathrow, Manchester |
Air France | 0.93% | 6 | Paris CDG |
ITA Airways | 0.63% | 4 | Milan, Rome |
Aer Lingus | 0.62% | 4 | Dublin, Manchester, Shannon |
* Averaged across the quarter, rounded, and one-way (double for both ways) | ** Minimum five flights to be counted |
Delta is #1
With more than a third of flights, Delta is JFK's leading carrier overall and domestically but is second to JetBlue internationally. Of course, this is primarily because JetBlue has three and a half times as many flights to the Caribbean, a good-sized slice of JetBlue's JFK pie.
Delta serves 96 destinations non-stop from JFK from July to September. These comprise 58 in North America (including 54 in the US), 23 in Europe, nine in the Caribbean, two in Africa, two in South America, and one in the Middle East.
Avianca is the leading foreign carrier
With 1.88% of JFK's total flights (3.44% for international), Avianca is JFK's top foreign carrier. While Avianca has a typical nine daily departures in the examined three months, they rise to a maximum of 11 daily on a handful of dates in July and August.
Using the A320neo, A320ceo, and A319 (shown above), Avianca's various AOCs serve JFK from Bogotá, San Salvador, Medellín, Guayaquil, Quito, Guatemala City, Cartagena, Pereira, and Cali.
It also operates from San Jose via Guatemala City. As this has the same flight number and also stops en route, it is the definition of a 'direct' route. Operating three weekly, it arrives in JFK at the fun time of 02:45.
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'Unusual' airlines
JFK is the US' leading international gateway, with many 'unusual' international passenger carriers. While saying what is different is highly subjective and varies from person to person, they include Air Senegal, Kenya Airways, and Uzbekistan Airways.
Which airlines would you like to serve JFK? Let us know in the comments.