Here are the 10 airlines with the most long-haul flights in July.
United Airlines has more long-haul flights in July than any other airline globally, where long-haul is defined as 3,000 miles (4,828km) or more. It has 4,427 departing flights, according to Cirium, with up to 142 a day.
United overtook Emirates in April for the world's top long-haul operator crown, a position it is set to retain for the foreseeable future. At least by flights, as Emirates, which uses much higher-capacity aircraft, remains first by seats and available seat miles. A table of the 10 airlines with the most long-haul flights is shown later in the article.
United's dominance is driven by many frequency increases on existing routes and the introduction of multiple brand-new long-haul services. It means its recovery is fast, although it hasn't quite exceeded its pre-pandemic level – it is at 94% of what it had in July 2019, its pinnacle. United's pole position is also because Emirates' long-haul offering is at just 67% of what it was.
With 61% of United's long-haul flights, the carrier especially involves around Europe. This summer, it has introduced many thinner 'experimental' destinations, such as Bergen, Nice, Palma, Ponta Delgada, and Tenerife South, and other routes, like Boston to London Heathrow and Chicago-Milan. Indeed, never has United had such a strong transatlantic network as this summer.
Of course, it's not just about Europe. United is the USA's largest airline to Asia, the Middle East, and Australasia, although Delta is top to Africa and American is to South America. United's focus on long-haul, coupled with it being the smallest among the 'big three', helps to explain why, at 3.7%, it has a much higher proportion of services than Delta and American. And, yes, it's influenced by their slower recovery, with just 71%-75% of flights back.
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It's hardly surprising that long-haul is a huge proportion of the total flights of global carriers Emirates and Qatar Airways, as shown below. After all, they have no domestic markets and only limited short-haul operations, unlike their US, Canadian, and European counterparts.
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Turkish Airlines has 1,771 departing long-haul flights this month, 8% more than it did in July 2019. Cirium shows that 2022 is a record for the Star Alliance carrier, with July's figure to be beaten – unless anything happens to change it – in August, November, and December and into 2023.
Considerable growth to North America (flights are up by 93%) has offset the predicable lagging recovery in Asia (especially China but Thailand and Vietnam). Turkish Airlines has introduced Dallas, Seattle, and Vancouver and recommenced Newark while massively growing frequencies on most US existing routes.
But think what could have been. Earlier this year, it had scheduled over 2,300 long-haul July flights before gradually chopping schedules. Indeed, across Turkish Airlines' whole network, it has, in the latest schedule upload, removed more fights for next month than any other carrier worldwide. A reminder that, in the current environment, ambition might be delayed. To a certain degree, this might explain why it'll mainly use its ex-Aeroflot A350s on pretty short flights, at least for now.
Of the 10 airlines mentioned here, which is your favorite to fly? Let us know in the comments.
Route Development Analyst – James lives and breathes route development. Educated in Air Transport Management at Loughborough and Cranfield, James was Market Opportunity Analyst at London Luton Airport and Chief Analyst at anna.aero. Now writing data-driven analysis for Simple Flying. Based near London, UK.
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