AMERICA FOREIGN INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC - STATS 2018

AMERICA FOREIGN INTERNATIONAL DESTINATIONS - STATS 2018

In this post, we are going to address what were the flow of passengers between the USA and the outside world. All numbers are derived from the Stats bureau of the US government. In this particular part , we are going to focus on point to point traffic. In a later post, we are going to tackle the US international market

1-How many travellers travelled  in and out the USA in 2018. 

226,979,399 passengers flew in-and-out the USA , mostly on scheduled  flights which represent more that 99% of the passengers carried.

The table below gives us the total traffic figure for 2018, broke down by month.

As expected , the traffic follows a seasonal trend where autumn and winter seasons  witness a sharp drop of traffic  in opposition to spring and especially summer months when traveling reaches its peak.Likewise, Load factors follow the same trend

2-Where they travelled from and to in 2018

Europe remains the favorite region that  makes up the most traffic with 29% market share, followed by cross border traffic with 26.4%  (see table  below).

The 5 most important country destinations per region are

Europe 

The biggest European market is the United Kingdom which is quite understandable as the country is an important economic ,educational and touristic destination. It is the home of British Airways  a leading company in the One World alliance

The Untied Kingdom is followed by Germany home of Lufthansa founder of Star Alliance and of 2 mega hubs : Frankfurt and Munich

France and the Netherlands follows suit  as Paris and Amsterdam are important financial and touristic destinations s well as the hub of SKYTEAMs biggest airlines Air France-KLM 

Last is Spain where Madrid is a major hub for Iberia (One World) and the country is major touristic destination .


Cross border : Canada and Mexico

With 59 Mil passengers cross border traffic is one of the biggest component of the foreign flow of passengers in/out the USA


Central America-The Caribbean-Bahamas-Bermuda

The Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Panama, Costa Rica and the Bahamas are clearly holiday destinations for the USA., may bee less to a certain extent for PANAMA because of the ex-military ties with the country over the canal, the country being also an important off shore financial center as well as an important aviation center where COPA , a star alliance member, funnels traffic between North America and central and Latin America.

Asia

The biggest Asian economic and trading partners with the USA are represented in the image above together with the important military ties with Japan and South Korea well as . However, United China (mainland China, Taiwan and Hong-Kong) represent the biggest market.



Latin America

The emerging markets and future economic power houses are represented in the image above : Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, and the Ecuador

Middle East and Africa

3 Arab Countries : The Emirates, Qatar and Morocco became major players thanks to their incumbent carriers Emirates and Etihad which channel a lot of traffic from  Pakistan, the Indian subcontinent as well as the Middle East due to many factors one of which is the weakness of Local airlines : Air India, PIA and no open skies policies or absence of direct link : Bangladesh, Nepal, Iraq, Iran.

Morocco channels traffic from Africa and North Africa thanks to its vast network.


Oceania-Pacific rim

An interesting mix of Industrial powers : Australia and New Zealand and major touristic centers : French Polynesia, Fiji and the Samoa

The 20 most traveled routes are 

Non wonder that London is the largest origin and destination city. with 5 routes on the top 20.London being an important financial, economic, and touristic centers coupled the historical links between the 2 countries .

Asian routes are  well represented with Tokyo taking the lead where cross border routes account for 7 out of 20 top routes.

The only Middle Eastern route is Tel Aviv to New York, whereas South American , African, and  Australian routes are not making the top 20.





3-With which Airline they travelled with


165 airline companies served the USA and its territories  . The  15 largest  airlines (per passengers carried) companies are detailed in the table below

 

The majority of the traffic was carried by American airlines which are holding  a 48% market share followed by European and Asian airlines 

An interesting feature is to notice that more than 25% of the traffic came from non-alliance members with  big brand names such JetBlue, Spirit Airlines, Southwest, Alaska Airlines  followed by One World as among its members are behemoth airline companies : Japan Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways....

4-With which Airliners they came with

221,661,016 passengers flew on jets and remaining on propliners. The most popular propliner is  the De Havilland DHC8-400  with 0.88%. market share only 

Boeing company is the company of choice of traveling to and from the United States  with 59.2%.market whereas Airbus is holding  32.2% of the market

 
The Boeing 737-800  is  the most popular single aisle  airliner  (12% of traffic).

The 5 largest operators of the B737-800 are 

1-American Airlines which carried 7,334,355 passengers on its B737-800, The company's most popular B737-800 routes were

MIA-CUN :532k pax
MIA-HAV :378k pax
MIA-KIN :293k pax




By ERIC SALARD from PARIS, FRANCE - N842NN LAX, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

2-United  Airlines  carried 4,402,617 passengers on its B737-800, The company's most popular B737-800 routes were

IAH/HOU-SJO : 287k pax

IAH/HOU-GUA : 214k pax 
IAH/HOU-SAL : 203k pax



By Eric Salard - N77296 LAX, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

3-WESTJET carried 2,775,981 passengers on its B737-800, The company's most popular B737-800  routes were
LAX-YVR : 226k pax, 
LAS-YYZ : 196k pax
LAS-YYC  :183k pax




By Ben King - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link


4-AEROMEXICO carried 2,447,196 passengers on its B737-800, The company's most popular B737-800 routes were
LAX-MEX : 486K pax, 
JFK-MEX : 261K pax
ORD-MEX: 248k pax


By Eric Salard - N861AM, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

Finally, COPA Airlines  carried 2,334,428 passengers  on its B737-800, The company's most popular B737-800  were
MIA-PTY :507k pax
MCO-PTY:389K pax
JFK-PTY : 330k pax 



By aeroprints.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link


 The 5 most popular routes of the B737-800 are :

1-LAX-MEX 741k Passengers
2-MIA-PTY 709K Passengers
3-MIA-CUN 532k Passengers
4-MIA-HAV 389k Passengers
5-GUM-ICN 378K Passengers  




Among the wide bodies , the B777 (all series) is the largest wide body carrier with about 19% of all passengers carried.

The 5 largest operators of the B777 (all series) are

1-United  Airlines  carried 6.310k passengers on its B777 (all series) . The company's most popular B777 (all series) routes  were :

GUM-NRT : 392k pax 

EWR-TLV : 389k pax

FRA-IAD: 295k pax




By N509FZ - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

2-American   Airlines  carried 5.850k passengers on its B777 (all series) . The company's most popular B777 (all series) routes  were :

JFK-LHR  :558k pax 

DFW-LHR : 468k pax

MIA-GRU: 401k pax




By Alan Wilson from Stilton, Peterborough, Cambs, UK - Boeing 777-223ER ‘N776AN’ American Airlines, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

3-Cathay Pacific   Airlines  carried 2.220k passengers on its B777 (all series) . The company's most popular B777 (all series) routes  were :

NEW-YORK (All airports)  : 667k pax 

LAX-HKG : 623k pax

SFO-HKG: 491k pax



By Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland - Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300; B-HNI@HKG;04.08.2011/615gf, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

4-British Airways carried 2.100k passengers on its B777 (all series) . The company's most popular B777 (all series) routes  were :

NEW YORK (All Airports)-LONDON (All Airports) : 619k pax 

MCO-LGW : 256k pax

BOS-LHR: 251k pax



By Alan Wilson - Boeing 777-236ER 'G-YMML' British Airways, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

5-Air France   carried 2.040k passengers on its B777 (all series) . The company's most popular B777 (all series) routes  were :

JFK-Paris (all airports)  : 560k pax 

ATL-CDG : 459k pax

LAX-CDG: 218k pax




By Eric Salard - F-GSPA CDG 160112B, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

 The 5 most popular routes of the B777 (all series)  are :

1-LAX-TPE  983k Passengers
2-JFK-LHR  906K Passengers
3-MIA-GRU 885k Passengers
4-SFO-HKG 826k Passengers
5-LAX-HKG 797K Passengers  



The airbus A350  (all series) has only  0.23% market share whereas the B787 (all series) carried almost 22 times times the number of passengers carried by the A350. I believe in the coming years, this great difference will diminish.

The only Russian jet that serves the USA is the Sukhoi SS100 operated by Interjet on its cross border services from Mexico to the USA

Regional jets : Candor CRJ100/200/700/900, the Embraers all series , Sukhoi SSJ100 carry 17.639.994 passenger or 8.4% of the total

5-Competitivity of American Airlines

The table below illustrates the market share of airline companies versus non-American companies 

 
The above table reflects the clout of the USA in particular markets that I will sum up in a simple sentence  all countries south of the US border are the playing field of the American airlines . Let us Remember that Pan American  first routes were to South American and major airline American airlines developed routes to this region  BRANIFF comes to mind. 
The weakness of the local companies to face the competition posed by American airlines , it is not Lanica, LACSA,  SAHSA would pose a threat to US owned companies
Corruption, social unrest and civil wars that the region witnessed during the last decades did not help develop strong local companies.

Market shares in the European,Asian, and Canadian have eroded during the years  as the blooming economies of these regions together  with a strong middle class has helped their  expansion too the USA. The most important being the open sky policies that these regions are adhering to

Middle East and Africa are markets largely ignored by American companies despite the foray of Delta in the African Market which can not beat the likes of Emirates Qatar Airways, Ethiopian and south African Airways.

The table below illustrates the countries where American companies have a virtual monopoly

The table below illustrates the countries where non-American companies have a virtual monopoly