Ahead of this year's Routes Americas forum, Routesonline is providing a snapshot on the leading airlines and airports and most used aircraft types across the region. Here we look closely at the airlines serving North America and highlight the region's top performers.
The data is all supplied by OAG Aviation using its OAG Schedules Analyser tool.
Scheduled Air Capacity From North America (2005 - 2014)
Our analysis of published schedules for the past ten years shows that air capacity within and from North America has fallen from 1,107,233,349 available seats in 2005 to 1,035,961,222 available seats in 2014. This represents a decline of 6.4 per cent across the period, an average annual fall of 0.7 per cent. The chart shows a big fall occurred in 2009 but the market has been recovering since then. In the past year capacity increased 1.6 per cent.
Top Ten Airports in the North American Market (2014)
US gateways take all the top ten airports for air travel within and from North America based on departure capacity in 2014: in fact only one Canadian airport makes it into the top twenty – Toronto Lester B Pearson International Airport in 13th place. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport continues to lead the way but with just a 0.4 per cent increase in capacity in 2014 versus 2013 its overall capacity share within and from North America has declined from 5.5 per cent to 5.4 per cent.
Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport is the second largest facility in the region with a 4.1 per cent capacity share, while Los Angeles International Airport is the third largest airport in North America with a 4.1 per cent capacity share, up 0.2 percentage points on 2013 following a 5.0 per cent growth last year, the second largest growth rate among the ten largest airports.
Fastest Growing Airports in the North American Market (2010-2014)
Looking at capacity data in the region across a five year period, it is the only non-US airport in the top twenty airports for travel within and from North America that has reported the highest rate of growth with Toronto’s Lester B Pearson International Airport growing departure capacity by 17.2 per cent between 2010 and 2014.
Double-digit growth during this timescale was also recorded by San Francisco International (up 15.8 per cent), Los Angeles International (up 14.3 per cent), Seattle-Tacoma International (up 12.3 per cent), Charlotte-Douglas International (up 12.2 per cent) and New York John F Kennedy International (up 11.5 per cent).
Data comparison between 2013 and 2014 shows that Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has seen the largest year-on-year growth among the top 20 airports in this region with capacity rising 7.5 per cent over the 12 month period. It is closely followed by New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport where departure capacity has risen 7.1 per cent versus last year.
The schedules highlight that only two of the top 20 airports in North America reported capacity declines between 2013 and 2014: Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (down 1.9 per cent) and Newark Liberty International Airport (down 0.3 per cent).
Scheduled North American Capacity by Aircraft Type
The chart below shows which aircraft types were most prevalent in the North American market during 2014. The schedule data shows the Boeing 737-700 (Winglets) (73W) is the most widely used aircraft type in this market with a 12.5 per cent share of available seats with overall network capacity up 8.1 per cent between 2013 and 2014 from 119.53 million seats to 129.23 million seats.
The second most utilised aircraft type in this market is the Airbus A320 (320) with a 9.1 per cent share, while third most widely operated type by network capacity is the Boeing 737-800 (738) with a 7.1 per cent share.
The biggest rise in annual capacity among the top ten aircraft types were recorded by the Boeing 737-800 (Winglets) (73H) with a 25.3 per cent rise in available domestic seats in 2014 versus 2013, followed closely by the Airbus A321 (321), up 23.8 per cent, thanks in part to its introduction on transcontinental schedules.
The largest decline in annual capacity was recorded by the Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) with a fall of 14.1 per cent versus 2013, albeit it remains the fifth most used aircraft type in the region. Boeing 757 (757) and McDonnell Douglas MD-88 (M88) capacity also fell, 12.1 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively.
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