From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The London to New York Air Route is an air route between London, UK, and New York, US. These two cities are connected by a heavily utilised 2,999-nautical-mile (3,451 mi; 5,554 km) air route which has been historically important to transatlantic aviation and is today served by several major airlines ( British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways: United Airlines flies out of the nearby airport of Newark, 9 miles [14 km] away from downtown Manhattan). [1] [2] The airports of Heathrow and JFK are the main international airports for the London metropolitan area and New York metropolitan area respectively, the world's two most important global cities. [3] The route sustains the highest number of passenger seat kilometers per annum of any route globally (10.92 billion ASK's were scheduled in 2015). [4] In 2018 British Airways achieved a revenue of $1.16 billion on this route alone, making their operation the highest value airline route globally. [5] The route saw a total traffic figure in 2018 of 3,034,155 (+3.0% on 2017), the busiest of any transatlantic air route. [6] [7]

Prior to the aircraft's retirement British Airways operated a double daily supersonic Concorde service on the route which covered the 2,999 nmi (3,451 mi; 5,554 km) distance in a scheduled time of 3 hours 15 minutes westbound and just under 3 hours eastbound. [8]

Passenger statistics

Below is a table of passenger numbers flying between Heathrow and JFK by year as published by the UK CAA. [9]

Passenger Statistics Between JFK and LHR
Year Total

Passengers

Annual Change Passenger

Kilometers

(Billions)

2019 3,192,195 Increase 5.2% 17,730
2018 3,034,155 Increase 3.0% 16.852
2017 2,945,744 Increase 0.4% 16.361
2016 2,934,554 Decrease 3.8% 16.299
2015 3,050,499 Increase 2.6% 16.942
2014 2,972,729 Decrease 1.4% 16.511
2013 3,015,218 Increase 6.2% 16.747
2012 2,839,007 Increase 6.0% 15.768
2011 2,678,991 Increase 6.4% 14.879
2010 2,517,896 Increase 1.6% 13.984
2009 2,478,722 Decrease 11.6% 13.767
2008 2,802,870 Decrease 1.3% 15.567
2007 2,839,221 Increase 3.2% 15.769
2006 2,751,835 - 15.284

Records

The fastest time for an airliner on the route is 2 hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds, this was achieved on an eastbound JFK- LHR Concorde service on 7 February 1996. [10]

The current fastest subsonic passenger service on the route was achieved by British Airways on 9 February 2020 with a time of 4 hours 56 minutes. The Boeing 747-400 (registration: G-CIVP) operating flight BA112 departed JFK at 18:30 Eastern Standard time on February 8 and landed at Heathrow at 06:25 GMT on February 9. The maximum recorded groundspeed was 825 mph (717 kn; 1,328 km/h). [11]

References

  1. ^ "Great Circle Mapper". Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  2. ^ "Flight timetable". London: Heathrow Airport Limited. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  3. ^ 2019 Global Cities Report (Report). Chicago: Kearney. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  4. ^ "Top 15 routes in relation to capacity, ASKs and frequency revealed". 26 August 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  5. ^ Dudley, Dominic. "The $1 Billion Prize: The World's 10 Most Lucrative Airline Routes". Forbes. Dubai. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  6. ^ "Airport data 2018". London: Civil Aviation Authority. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  7. ^ Casey, David. "Europe's busiest international passenger routes revealed". Routes. London: Informa. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  8. ^ "Complete List Of Concorde Scheduled Flights". Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  9. ^ "Airport data". London: Civil Aviation Authority. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  10. ^ Morris, Hugh (18 January 2018). "BA loses transatlantic time record to Norwegian thanks to ferocious jet stream". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  11. ^ Embury-Dennis, Tom (9 February 2020). "British Airways records fastest ever New York-London flight at more than 800mph". The Independent. London. Retrieved 16 February 2020.