As you know, New York JFK is the US's largest international and long-haul gateway, thanks to JetBlue, Delta Air Lines, and around 70 other operators.
The airport has nonstop and one-stop scheduled passenger flights to over 125 international airports globally.
JFK is first for the country's European, African, and Middle Eastern flights and third to Asia-Pacific (after San Francisco and Los Angeles).
It is second to the Caribbean, Central America, and South America (after Miami), ninth to Mexico, and 19th to Canada.
They are as follows, based on roundtrip passengers in the 12 months to July 2024.
Only international airport pairs (not city pairs) are considered, so none in Puerto Rico, a US territory, are included.
Emphasis on 'local' or 'point-to-point' is critical. The traffic volume does not involve those who flew, say, JFK-London Heathrow-Delhi, only those who flew between JFK and Heathrow, regardless of whether they flew nonstop or connected to another flight en route.
The 15 are so significant they had almost 10 million passengers, equivalent to 27,000+ passengers daily. Given JFK's extensive service, around 95% of passengers flew nonstop.
Tel Aviv had the greatest volume of indirect traffic, with about a fifth of people flying via a hub.
- London Heathrow: 1.80 million
- Santiago (Dominican Republic): 958,000
- Paris CDG: 889,000 (Norse Atlantic began in March 2023 and JetBlue in June 2023)
- Santo Domingo: 824,000
- Cancun: 676,000
- Rome Fiumicino: 630,000 (Norse began in June 2023)
- Milan Malpensa: 625,000 (ITA Airways pulled out in January 2024)
- Mexico City: 610,000
- Tel Aviv: 542,000 (American suspended flights in October 2023 and Delta in August 2024; the latter is due to return in April 2025)
- Punta Cana: 578,000
- London Gatwick: 464,000 (JetBlue has exited this market)
- Montego Bay: 481,000 (Caribbean Airlines pulled out in June 2023)
- Aruba: 412,000
- Madrid: 410,000
- Dublin: 390,000 (JetBlue entered this market in March 2024)
JFK-Rome is particularly interesting. In 2019, it had around 420,000 roundtrip passengers, which increased to 630,000 in the year to July 2024 (+50%!).
It was the epitome of the heightened interest in Southern European travel.
According to Cirium Diio information, departures rose from five daily in July 2019 to nine/10 daily five years later.
They'll fall to eight daily in July 2025, with the JFK departures as follows. Notice three takeoffs in an hour:
- 00:30: Norse, daily 787-9
- 16:05: ITA, daily A330neo
- 16:55: American, daily 787-9/777-200ER
- 17:05: Delta, daily A330-300
- 17:40: ITA, daily A330-200
- 19:25: Delta, daily A330-300
- 21:15: Delta, daily A330-300
- 21:30: ITA, daily A330neo
Despite the often-mentioned buoyant demand between the US and Southern Europe, American has halved its JFK offering, and Norse has cut its frequency from eight weekly to daily.
Removing these seats for sale will help with stronger pricing, yields, and loads.
