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The skies over the Atlantic are busier than ever

I took the family to the US in May for a two-week break. We stayed in New York for about a week and then went on to Boston for another week, staying with my wife’s nephew and his family. The odd thing was that it was just so easy booking the flights and organising the trip. The only thing that hurt was my wallet – the US has become very expensive. I suspect, in terms of pricing, the opposite is true, and the Americans are finding Europe cheap because they appear to be flocking to Europe this summer.

And this hasn’t gone unnoticed. The skies over the Atlantic are busier than ever, with airlines betting big on Americans' insatiable appetite for European jaunts. A record-breaking 418,000 flights are scheduled between the US and Europe this summer, up 7 percent from last year's high-water mark. Buoyed by a stronger dollar, US travellers are flooding the streets of London, Paris and Rome. Even Taylor Swift's European tour is driving transatlantic traffic, as fans chase cheaper concert tickets across the pond. Even the IT outage last week, which grounded a lot of flights, hasn’t stopped them.

Yet this aerial gold rush comes with turbulence. As US domestic routes face overcapacity and fare pressure, carriers are doubling down on lucrative transatlantic routes. United Airlines leads the pack with over 722,000 seats in July, while Air France has turbocharged its capacity by 15 percent. Low-cost upstarts like Norse Atlantic are also muscling in, though their share of the market still remain relatively moderate.

Source: Financial Times

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