American Airline’s Philadelphia (PHL) Transatlantic Share stands out in the Northeast

Seats by Airline

American’s position has certainly become unique for major airports in the Northeast. During Summer 2024 American, along with their One World partner British Airways and codeshare partner Aer Lingus, will fly 94.2% (4,050 seats) of PHL’s daily transatlantic capacity (4,848 seats). Only one other carrier will offer transatlantic service completing the remaining 5.8% (283 seats) of capacity, Lufthansa’s leisure airline, Discover Airlines, to Frankfurt (FRA).

While PHL may not serve a market on the level of the other major international gateways in the Northeast - BOS, JFK, EWR, and IAD - they do stand alone in lack of diversity in transatlantic options.

To put it in perspective, on the same day even American’s transatlantic share is less at their Charlotte (CLT) fortress hub offering 89.3% (2,457 seats) of the 2,750 total seats with Lufthansa service to Munich being the remaining 10.7% (293 seats).

As for the other major airports in the Northeast, each has transatlantic service by multiple airlines from each of the big three airline alliances, One World, Star Alliance and Sky Team, except for PHL. Philly has no Sky Team transatlantic service and just Discover representing Star Alliance. Does this mean there is room for new transatlantic service at PHL? American thinks so as they are adding Copenhagen (CPH), Nice (NCE), and Naples (NAP) in summer 2024, all new routes for the airline.

PHL’s lack of competitive service is likely for 2 reasons. First, transatlantic demand just being lower when compared to Boston, New York City, and Washington D.C.. And second, PHL’s proximity to New York City, especially Newark making it possible for passengers to cross shop between major airports.

What is in store for Philly’s transatlantic future? A few things can happen —

  • With the advent of the A321LR/XLR, service like TAP Portugal to Lisbon (LIS) or SAS to Copenhagen (CPH) service providing new connections for Star Alliance and Sky Team respectively

  • PHL is the largest Northeast market with no service to Reykjavik (KEF) making it a possible market for IcelandAir to serve with the 737 MAX or their A321LRs coming over the next few years

  • American can continue to enter new markets and leverage their dominance in Philadelphia as well as their A321XLRs arriving in 2024. Potential markets include Manchester (MAN), Edinburgh (EDI), Munich (MUC), Milan (MXP), Shannon (SNN), Berlin (BER), Brussels (BRU), or Prague (PRG), just to name a few

  • Air France or KLM could enter the market to Paris (CDG) or Amsterdam (AMS) creating a link for Sky Team

Data for this analysis is for 8/1/24 departures from the airlines’ websites and seatguru.com.