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New York to Europe flights come with a lot of airline names attached: Delta, Air France, KLM, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, American, Iberia, Aer Lingus, United, Lufthansa, SWISS and more. But most of them aren't really competing with each other. They're grouped into three partnerships, called joint ventures, that coordinate schedules and share the money on flights across the Atlantic. We counted every scheduled seat from New York's JFK and Newark airports to 11 of Europe's biggest cities for a week this November, plus Boston to London. Those three teams hold 90% of the seats.
The Three Teams
- Delta, Air France, KLM and Virgin Atlantic have the biggest share, 35% of the seats.
- British Airways, American, Iberia and Aer Lingus have 29%.
- United, Lufthansa and SWISS have 26%.
Everyone else, including ITA, JetBlue, TAP Air Portugal, Air Europa, Condor and Singapore Airlines, which flies from JFK to Frankfurt, shares the last 10%.
Within each team, the airlines sell each other's flights and split the revenue, so on a route where one team has most of the seats, the "choice" between, say, Delta and Air France is mostly a choice of plane and service, not of who you're paying.
City by City
Each team has its strongholds, usually the home city of its European partner.
- London Heathrow: the British Airways and American team has 54% of the seats from New York and Boston, with British Airways alone at 41%. Delta and Virgin Atlantic have 26% between them, and United 15%.
- Paris: Air France and Delta together have 74%.
- Amsterdam: KLM and Delta have 81%. United has the rest.
- Zurich: SWISS and United have 79%.
- Frankfurt: Lufthansa and United have 67%, with Singapore Airlines a notable outsider at 18%.
- Dublin: Aer Lingus alone has 60%.
A few cities are more open. Rome is split almost exactly three ways between ITA, United and Delta. Barcelona has Delta, United, American and Iberia all in the mix. Madrid is about half Iberia and American. And in this November week, Athens was served nonstop from New York by Delta alone, since most Athens flights are summer-only.
The planes differ, too. The European airlines tend to fly bigger ones. KLM, Lufthansa and Air France all average more than 310 seats a flight from New York, compared with about 240 to 255 for United, British Airways, American and Delta. JetBlue, which flies single-aisle Airbus A321s to London and Paris, averages 138, and TAP 163.
What It Means When You Book
Because the airlines in each team coordinate, comparing Delta and Air France to Paris, or British Airways and American to London, often won't turn up very different fares. The real comparison is between teams: Delta's against United's against British Airways and American. On routes where one team dominates, like Paris, Amsterdam and Zurich, prices have less pressure on them, and it can pay to check a connection through another team's hub, or an independent airline like JetBlue, TAP or Condor.
Loyalty is the other angle. If you collect Delta miles, you can use them across Air France, KLM and Virgin Atlantic flights too. And if you're picking a team for London, our tracking of 575 flights showed which airlines actually got passengers home on time. And with Heathrow now splitting up Delta and Virgin Atlantic into different terminals, the fight for London passengers is only getting more interesting.
