Earlier this week, I examined the top domestic international and domestic routes from New York's John F. Kennedy, and then its leading passenger airlines. In the final part of the trilogy, I explore its most-used aircraft types.
JFK's aircraft: a summary
Using Cirium data to examine JFK's entire northern aviation summer schedule (March 26th-October 28th) reveals that the A321ceo is the airport's leading type/variant, as shown in the following table. It is, of course, mainly because of JetBlue, but also Delta and American. Virtually half of JFK's flights (49.0%) are by narrowbody jets (excluding regional aircraft), then regional jets (26.7%).
Given the nature of JFK's operations, it is entirely unsurprising that widebodies account for about one in four flights (24.1%). It has vastly more, proportionally and absolutely, than any other US airport. However, while it ranks ninth worldwide by twin-aisle widebody departures, it has risen from 14th in summer 2019, mainly due to cuts in Asia.
Finally, 0.4% of JFK's flights are by pistons (there are no scheduled turboprop services). Cape Air uses the Cessna 402s to Cape Cod and the Tecnam P2012 to Saranac Lake. Passengers can connect over JFK with Cape Air partner carriers.
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Top 10 passenger aircraft
The most popular passenger aircraft types/variants used by scheduled operators are detailed in the following table. They operate about 70% of JFK's services. Unlike most US airports, not one but two widebodies feature in the top 10.
Type/variant | % of JFK's summer flights* | Avg daily flights** | Top 3 airlines (by flights) | Non-stop routes^ (top three routes) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
A321ceo | 13.9% | 88 | Only three: JetBlue, American, Delta | 45 (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orlando) |
A320ceo | 12.4% | 78 | JetBlue, Avianca, Delta | 70 (Orlando, Austin, Fort Lauderdale) |
E175 | 10.5% | 66 | Only three: American, Delta, Air Canada | 25 (Boston, Reagan, Columbus) |
CRJ-900 | 9.7% | 61 | Only one: Delta | 29 (Raleigh Durham, Charlotte, Buffalo) |
E190 | 6.3% | 40 | Only one: JetBlue | 25 (Boston, Buffalo, Detroit) |
737-900 | 5.1% | 32 | Only two: Delta, Alaska | 21 (Santo Domingo, San Juan, Santiago, DO) |
737-800 | 4.4% | 28 | American, Delta, Copa | 23 (Miami, Panama City, Dallas Fort Worth) |
767-300 | 4.3% | 27 | Delta, LATAM, Icelandair*** | 28 (Los Angeles, Lima, Accra) |
777-300ER | 3.6% | 23 | American, BA, Air France | 14 (Heathrow, Paris CDG, Tokyo Haneda) |
* March 26th-October 28th | ** Departing flights | *** One-off on May 14th | ^ Min five flights across the summer and all airlines |
Less common widebodies
Among less common widebodies, JFK sees the A330-800neo (Kuwait Airways; -800 replaced the 777-300ER on March 15th), the 747-8 (Korean Air), A340-300 (Lufthansa; shown below), A340-600 (Lufthansa), and 777-200LR (Air India).
Despite once being one of the world's leading 747-400 airports, JFK has no scheduled passenger flights by the type this summer. Back in summer 2019, it was used by British Airways, El Al, KLM (747-400 Combi), and Virgin Atlantic at JFK. All have since been withdrawn.
What aircraft have you flown to/from JFK? Let us know in the comments.