Flight Friday: Smaller U.S. Carriers See Rises In Utilization, Fleet

With MRO Americas in Atlanta firmly on the horizon, this week’s Flight Friday, again, has a U.S.-focused theme, as we assess some of the slightly smaller U.S. operators.

Looking at the aggregated number of flights from 2019 and comparing it with 2023 onward—which removes most of the pandemic dip in utilization—at first glance, it appears that business as usual has returned.

Overall utilization of these combined operators is up around 10% in early 2025 compared to the same time in early 2019. The combined fleet of these operators is over 700, whereas back in 2019 it was around the 600 mark, so we have seen an increase in fleet of approximately 20%.

Let’s start with ULCC Frontier Airlines. It is an operator that has gained the most in comparison to the equivalent month of 2019. The airline’s flights are up by over 70% compared to 2019. This uptick in utilization is aided by a fleet consisting of around 60 additional aircraft in service, an increase of 60%.

Alaska Airlines is back to operating at 2019 levels and has been since the beginning of 2024. Its utilization is flat when compared to 2019, as is its fleet. Over this time, it has removed the A320 family aircraft that it acquired from the purchase of Virgin America and replaced those with Boeing MAX aircraft, which means it is operating with a similar-sized, and more efficient, fleet.

JetBlue Airways returned almost to 2019 levels during 2023. However, since its monthly flight totals have dropped by almost 15%. JetBlue has a fleet that is 10% larger than in 2019. Although with its Airbus A220s and A321neos powered with Pratt & Whitney PW1000G (GTF) engines, JetBlue has had to deal with durability issues which have reduced capacity.

Breeze Airways was not flying in 2019, however, with a fleet of almost 50 aircraft, Breeze now accounts for almost 7% of all the flights between these operators. Breeze’s utilization is up 20% on 2023 levels as it looks to continue to add aircraft to its fleet.

This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization database.