This week’s Flight Friday looks at the “Big Four” U.S. operators—feeder network is not included in this analysis—with the upcoming MRO Americas event fast approaching.
Looking at indexed monthly fight cycles compared to the equivalent month in 2019, the U.S. “Big Four” are all now operating more flights in 2024 than in 2019. The industry is now setting the new utilization benchmark.
American Airlines’ post-pandemic recovery really stared in early 2021. In early 2021, American was operating around 50% of the equivalent 2019 monthly flights, but that percentage grew over the summer timetable and settled around 90% by the end of the year. 2022 saw slow but steady growth, and American returned to 100% of 2019 levels at the beginning of 2023. Since then, American has operated around 3% more flights per month than in 2019. The increase in flights is helped by having 50 more in-service aircraft than at the end of 2019. American took delivery of almost 130 Boeing 737-8s and Airbus A321neos during this period.
Delta Air Lines started its recovery a little earlier than American. By October 2021, Delta was already at 50% 2019 levels. However, Delta only got back to 2019 levels in 2024, but it was close for the majority of 2023. Again, Delta’s in-service fleet is over 50 aircraft more in 2024, as Delta moves work out of its regional feeder network and brings it all in-house.
Listen to our exclusive interview with Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian
Southwest Airlines, like many other LCCs globally, started up flights as soon as it could after COVID. By summer 2020, Southwest was operating 50%+ of 2019 levels, but as the U.S. moved to the winter schedule that number dropped off. By summer 2022, Southwest was above 100% and remained there, except for their system-wide meltdown in December 2022 that led to Southwest cancelling thousands of flights, which caused its utilization to dip. With its increased in-service fleet, which is 150 more aircraft than at the end of 2019, Southwest’s utilization is consistently 10% higher than equivalent month 2019.
United Airlines has a very similar profile to American, again returning to 2019 levels in October 2022. Where United is different is the continued growth through 2023, where they averaged 15% higher utilization for most of the year. United has made a strong start to 2024, and its higher in-service fleet in 2024, which is almost 180 more than at the end of 2019, means we expect this growth to continue.
This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization tool.
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