London Heathrow recently announced that it had become Europe's leading airport in terms of traffic.. This assertion is confirmed by OAG's latest analyses of seat capacity.
London Heathrow, the big winner on the North Atlantic
While total capacity from the UK is still down by some 15%, London Heathrow is at the top of European intercontinental routes. In particular to the United States where London Heathrow-New York JFK remains Europe's leading intercontinental market, with 281,291 seats available in October 2022.
This compares with 155,968 seats on the Paris CDG-JFK route...
London Heathrow recently announced that it had become Europe's leading airport in terms of traffic.. This assertion is confirmed by OAG's latest analyses of seat capacity.
London Heathrow, the big winner on the North Atlantic
While total capacity from the UK is still down by some 15%, London Heathrow is at the top of European intercontinental routes. In particular to the United States where London Heathrow-New York JFK remains Europe's leading intercontinental market, with 281,291 seats available in October 2022.
This compares with 155,968 seats on the Paris CDG-JFK route. It nevertheless enables Paris CDG-New York to be the second largest airline in terms of seats between Europe and North America.
London Heathrow is also number one on routes to Boston, Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles and San Francisco..
Between Europe and the Americas, Paris CDG-Montreal, Madrid-Bogota and Madrid-Mexico City are the routes offering the highest seat capacity in October 2022.
| Europe-Americas airlines |
Seating capacity 10/22 |
| London LHR-New York JFK |
281,291 |
| Paris CDG-New York JFK |
155,968 |
| London LHR-Los Angeles |
142,442 |
| London LHR-Chicago ORD |
128,642 |
| London LHR-Boston |
123,924 |
| Paris CDG-Montreal |
122,305 |
| Madrid-Bogota |
110,500 |
| London LHR-San Francisco |
104,818 |
| Madrid-Mexico |
94,980 |
(Source: OAG)
Paris ranks favourably for Africa
On routes between Europe, Africa and the Middle East, London Heathrow is the only airport in the top 10 to Dubai and Doha. The route to Dubai is in fact the second largest in terms of intercontinental seats from Europe.
On the other hand, on Africa, the Paris CDG and Orly airports come out on top on connections to theAlgeria as well as to La Réunion.
Europe-Africa/Middle East airlines
|
Seating capacity 10/22 |
| London LHR-Dubai |
237,056 |
| London LHR-Doha |
172,270 |
| Paris CDG-Alger |
122,186 |
| Paris ORY-Saint Denis (La Réunion) |
105,107 |
| Paris ORY-Alger |
83,586 |
(Source: OAG)
Intra-Scandinavian routes top the European rankings
However, within Europe, none of the routes originating in France, Italy or Germany rank among the top routes offering the most air capacity.
Surprisingly so, Scandinavia dominates the picture as well as an air link between Moscow-Vnukovo airport and Antalya in Turkey. But for the latter, the political context of war and the closure of regular air links with the European Union explain this positioning.
On the other hand, the following lines are included in the ranking London Heathrow-Dublin as well as Lisbon-Madrid. For the latter, air travel remains the most competitive means of transport between the two capitals, as rail links are non-existent.
| Intra-European airlines |
Seating capacity 10/22 |
| Copenhagen-Oslo |
200,622 |
| Stockholm ARN-Oslo |
178,622 |
| Lisbon-Madrid |
176,581 |
| Stockholm ARN-Copenhagen |
170,044 |
| London LHR-Dublin |
168,428 |
(Source: OAG)
According to OAG, seat capacity in Europe is still lower for the first week of November 2022 than for the same week in 2019. L'Spain is very close to recovering its pre-covid capacity at -3.4%. France and Italy rank second and third respectively, with capacities of 12.3% and 13.5%.. This is theGermany which posted the worst figures, with capacity down 29.3%.
