US aviation market data
Latest flight data insights and analysis from America
July 2026
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US seat capacity, 2025 and 2026
US domestic & international capacity: 2025 vs 2026
Top 10 US airlines, July 2026
American Airlines remains the biggest carrier in the US this month with 21% of the market, operating 23.6m seats. Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines represent 19% and 18% share of the market respectively, with 20.8m and 20.3m seats in July 26.
Southwest Airlines took 183k seats out of the market vs last year and Allegiant Air reduced capacity by 92k seats. The Big 4 carriers continue to represent 75% share of the market.
Seat capacity by airline
| Airline | Seats | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | American Airlines | 23.62m | +2.0% |
| 2. | Delta Air Lines | 20.81m | 0.0% |
| 3. | Southwest Airlines | 20.29m | −1.0% |
| 4. | United Airlines | 18.68m | +5.0% |
| 5. | Alaska Airlines | 6.74m | +25.0% |
| 6. | Frontier Airlines | 4.32m | +27.0% |
| 7. | JetBlue Airways | 4.03m | +11.0% |
| 8. | Allegiant Air | 2.33m | −4.0% |
| 9. | Breeze Airways | 1.12m | +44.0% |
| 10. | Air Canada | 0.68m | 0.0% |
Source: OAG · July 2026 scheduled capacity
Alaska Airlines added the most seats this month, increasing seats by 1.4m vs July 25 - an increase of 25% year on year. Alaska's capacity growth is being driven by their international expansion strategy, integration with Hawaiian Airlines and fleet modernization.
Percentage wise Etihad Airways increased capacity at the fastest rate of 46% vs July 25, followed by Breeze Airways and Frontier Airlines which increased capacity by 44% and 27% respectively. Etihad has increased the frequency of its flights from Abu Dhabi: moving from daily to double daily to Chicago and from 4 weekly flights to daily to Charlotte.
Top 10 US airports by seat capacity
The Top 10 busiest airports continue to account for 35.5% of capacity. Atlanta remains the biggest airport in capacity terms, with 5.6m seats, despite a reduction of 119,700 seats.
Chicago O'Hare saw the largest increase in capacity again this month, adding 303,300 more seats vs July 25 to 5.1m seats. New York JFK decreased capacity most within the Top 10 this month, with 170,400 fewer seats than last year.
| No | Code | Airport | Seats | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | ATL | Atlanta | 5.58m | −2.1% |
| 2. | ORD | Chicago O'Hare | 5.05m | +6.4% |
| 3. | DFW | Dallas Fort Worth | 4.71m | +2.0% |
| 4. | DEN | Denver | 4.64m | +3.0% |
| 5. | LAX | Los Angeles | 4.08m | −1.0% |
| 6. | JFK | New York JFK | 3.48m | −4.7% |
| 7. | SEA | Seattle-Tacoma | 3.13m | +8.0% |
| 8. | SFO | San Francisco | 3.10m | +3.0% |
| 9. | MCO | Orlando | 2.87m | −3.0% |
| 10. | MIA | Miami | 2.79m | −2.0% |
Source: OAG July 2026 · hover chart or click a table row to cross-highlight
Top 10 busiest US domestic routes
This month, the busiest route remains Los Angeles to San Francisco with 340,000 seats, an increase in capacity of 27% vs July 25, 71,600 additional seats
New York La Guardia to Chicago is the second busiest route with 321,400 seats, a 5% increase in capacity year on year.
Boston to Chicago also saw a double digit percentage increase this month of 25% vs July 25, 50,900 additional seats.
Capacity decreased most on the Anchorage to Seattle route, declining by 9% vs July 25. This was followed by Atlanta to Orlando reducing by 5% vs last year.
Source: OAG · July 2026 scheduled capacity
States adding and removing most capacity
The state of Illinois continued to see the most growth this month, with 283,500 additional seats vs July 25. Percentage wise capacity in Oregon increased at the fastest rate, up 5.3%, 71,000 additional seats.
Capacity decreased most in the state of New York this month, by 317,700 seats. This appears to be driven mainly by FAA-imposed operational constraints and air-traffic-control staffing shortages around the New York airport system, with some additional reductions from airline network adjustments such as Frontier and JetBlue scaling back services.
Capacity change by US state — hover for details
- Illinois+283,500 seats (+4.6%)
- Pennsylvania+127,200 seats (+4.9%)
- Massachusetts+101,600 seats (+3.9%)
- Tennessee+91,600 seats (+4.3%)
- Oregon+71,000 seats (+5.3%)
- New York−317,700 seats (−3.5%)
- Florida−259,600 seats (−2.3%)
- Michigan−212,100 seats (−8.9%)
- Nevada−198,400 seats (−6.1%)
- North Carolina−138,100 seats (−3.2%)
US aviation market: common questions
Data is sourced from OAG's Schedules Analyser.
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Total US scheduled seat capacity in July 2026 is 126.6 million seats, down −1.0% vs July 2025. Domestic capacity declined by 0.4% to 95.3 million seats, while international capacity contracted by 2.8% to 31.2 million seats.