This April, our travel infographics cover the reshaping of the US low-cost market, the biggest US airlines heading into Summer 2026, the world's longest non-stop flights, where Europe's new routes are launching, the latest airline-tech innovations and much more...
Click any chart to read the full analysis.
The US domestic market: Spirit's collapse and Frontier's rise
The tier-two US low-cost sector has been dramatically reshaped since 2024. Frontier has grown capacity by 104% since 2016 and now offers more seats than JetBlue, while Spirit has shed 62% of capacity from its 2024 peak as it works through its second Chapter 11 process, currently operating 160 aircraft. Collectively, JetBlue, Frontier, Spirit, and Allegiant provide 7.8% of all US domestic capacity: a small share, but the one attracting the most attention in the market right now.
The biggest US airlines in Summer 2026
American Airlines leads all US carriers with 160.5 million scheduled seats and a 21.7% market share this summer. The four biggest US airlines, American, Delta, Southwest, and United, hold 562 million seats between them, representing 76% of all US capacity. United is the fastest-growing of the four, up 9% year-on-year and adding 51 net new domestic routes. Spirit, by contrast, has cut scheduled seat capacity from 23.3 million in Summer 2025 to 10.7 million: a reduction of 54% in a single year.
US international airfares in Q1 2026
OAG's Q1 2026 airfare analysis shows fares declined year-on-year on 13 of the top 20 US domestic and international routes. On the JFK–LHR corridor, the largest US international route by seat capacity, outbound fares rose 6% to $557, consistent with a modest capacity reduction of around 100,000 seats. The largest fare change was on LaGuardia–Toronto Pearson (LGA–YYZ), where outbound fares fell 45% as the route now has four carriers operating, prompting questions about overcapacity.
March 2026 on-time performance: SAS leads the major airlines
Among major airlines (those operating more than 20,000 flights in the month), Scandinavian Airlines claimed first place for on-time performance in March 2026, followed by Hainan Airlines and China Southern Airlines. In the all-airlines category, Garuda Indonesia led with a 97.9% OTP rate. Vietnam Airlines reported zero cancellations across 14,100 planned flights. Air Canada had a challenging month, with 59.3% of flights arriving on time and 4.7% of planned flights cancelled.
The OAG airline-tech innovation radar: April 2026
April's innovation radar is focused squarely on operations rather than retail, a first for Google, which features for the eighth time in the series. A landmark trial embedding AI-driven contrail forecasts into American Airlines' flight planning workflow achieved a 62% reduction in contrail formation and a 69% drop in estimated warming effect, at a fleet-level fuel cost of just 0.3%. Google's Find Hub baggage location feature has also been integrated into SITA's WorldTracer system, used by more than 500 airlines across approximately 2,800 airports. Meanwhile, Heathrow has selected the AIRHART platform to replace its legacy systems with a unified AI-driven operations infrastructure.
Italy leads European new route growth in Summer 2026
Europe has the highest level of new route growth of any region this summer, with over 400 new international routes. Within Europe, Italy leads with 53 new international routes, followed by Spain (45) and Germany (44). Together, those three countries account for 41% of all new European international routes this summer. Wizz Air is the single biggest contributor to new route launches across the five largest country markets, adding 82 routes, though with 76 routes also dropped from Summer 2025, the net picture shows a high degree of churn across the continent.
World's longest non-stop flights: Summer 2026
Singapore Airlines holds the top two spots in Summer 2026, with JFK–SIN at 15,332 km and EWR–SIN at 15,329 km, and appears three times overall in the top ten. Qantas accounts for three routes in the ranking, PER–LHR, DFW–MEL, and CDG–PER, reflecting the carrier's sustained commitment to ultra-long-haul flying. Every route in the top ten exceeds 14,000 km, and the longest average flight time across the list is 18 hours 40 minutes.
Do the busiest routes use the busiest airports?
.jpg?width=800&height=800&name=Do%20the%20busiest%20routes%20use%20the%20busiest%20airports%20(1).jpg)
In April 2026, Tokyo Haneda is the only top-three global airport that also anchors multiple top domestic routes, appearing on three of the top ten. The four largest US airports, ATL, ORD, DFW, and DEN, do not appear on a single top domestic route, as their volume is spread across hundreds of connections. In the international top ten, JFK–LHR is the only Western route and the sole pairing where either airport ranks globally by total seats. The remaining nine international routes are entirely Asia-Pacific.
Read the full analysis on busiest routes | Read the full analysis on busiest airports
We'll deliver our aviation market analysis, data infographics, and travel tech news straight to your inbox when you subscribe to OAG's weekly content digest, below.
