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News / The 9 US to Europe transatlantic routes with only a weekly flight
High-frequency dominates transatlantic travel
During the summer, up to 635 scheduled passenger flights will depart from the US each day bound for Europe (double for both ways). Examining every planned service using Cirum Diio data shows that more than 40 airlines will provide over 500 routes.
In the peak period, the average frequency per route will be eight weekly departures. However, they will vary from as few as one weekly operation—the focus of this article—to as many as eight takeoffs daily (British Airways between London Heathrow and New York JFK). Some 97 routes will be served at least double daily, and 25 will have a triple daily or greater operation.
US-Europe routes with a weekly flight
As summarized below, examining all 500+ routes shows that only a handful will have a weekly departure. All involve European operators and revolve around point-to-point traffic.
While overly simplistic, the operations primarily concern holidaymakers (Iberojet and TUI Airways) and diaspora (Azores Airlines, LOT Polish, neos, and TAP Air Portugal).
It would be easy to conclude that the nature of demand, combined with low frequency and, in some cases, not especially large equipment, may cause load factors to be very high.
For example, in the summer of 2024, the US Department of Transportation showed that LOT Polish filled 92% of seats between Kraków/Rzeszów and Newark. However, this is not always the case. Unless the DOT's data is incorrect, Azores Airlines filled just 47% of Terceira-New York JFK capacity.
To be included, routes must be entirely weekly or weekly for most of the northern aviation summer (March 30-October 25).
Airline | Route (summer only) | Comments (days/dates from the airline's country of origin) |
|---|---|---|
Azores Airlines | Terceira to Boston | Tuesdays (A321neo) |
Azores Airlines | Terceira to New York JFK | Saturdays (A321neo; A320neo on April 5 only) |
IberoJet | Madrid to Orlando | Saturdays (A330-300). Started in June 2024. Iberia will begin the route later this year (four weekly) |
LOT Polish | Kraków to Newark | Saturdays (787-8; 787-9 on May 31, October 18) |
LOT Polish | Rzeszów to Newark | Mondays (787-8; 787-9 on April 14, June 23, June 30, August 11, September 1) |
Neos | Bari to New York JFK | New route, beginning June 4. Wednesdays (787-9) |
TAP Air Portugal | Lisbon-Terceira-San Francisco | New route, beginning June 3. Tuesdays (A330-900). Replaces Azores Airlines, which flew between Terceira and Oakland until 2024 |
TUI Airways | Belfast International to Melbourne | Saturdays on June 21, June 28, July 5, and July 12 only (787-9) |
TUI Airways | Birmingham to Melbourne | While twice-weekly until the end of April, it'll be on Thursdays for 25+ summer weeks thereafter (787-8) |
Azores Airlines: Terceira to New York JFK
This will be the fourth-shortest US-Europe route this summer at just 2,139 nautical miles (3,961 km). Only Terceira to Boston (Azores Airlines), Ponta Delgada to Boston (Azores Airlines), and Keflavik to Boston (Icelandair, PLAY) will cover less distance. Except for Terceira to New York/Boston, the others have more than a weekly service, hence not appearing on the table.
In 2024, flights from the Big Apple back to Terceira were during the day, leaving at 11:00 and returning at 20:45. Things are very different now.
On Fridays, S4234 will leave JFK at 20:55 and return to Europe at 06:45+1 (5h 50m). On Saturdays, S4235 will leave Terceira at 17:30 and reach the Big Apple at 19:35 (a block time of 6h 05m). The aircraft operates Ponta Delgada-JFK-Terceira-JFK-Ponta Delgada.
Azores Airlines and Iceland's PLAY will use the A320neo on various US routes: Keflavik to Baltimore/Boston/Stewart and Ponta Delgada to Boston/JFK. However, as the equipment will only operate one Terceira-JFK flight, this airport pair will have the fewest services.
