North Atlantic aviation market growth: smaller airports benefit

A CAPA analysis report in Feb-2019 suggested that competition authorities on both sides of the pond may well increase their scrutiny of North Atlantic aviation and the joint ventures in 2019. Although overall JV share is slowly falling, it is still very high, and there has been little or no increase in competition on some routes since ATI was granted in 2010.

On the other hand, the entry of LCC Norwegian into the North Atlantic in 2013 sparked a low cost onslaught that has invigorated the market. WOW air, WestJet, Eurowings and Primera Air also entered the arena and made their mark (although WOW air is now shrinking and Primera Air has gone out of business). New entrants and new aircraft have helped to grow the number of airports in this market, particularly among airports previously regarded as too small to sustain nonstop trans Atlantic services.

The CAPA Americas Aviation Summit in Denver on 18-19 March 2019 will include discussion of the North Atlantic. This report adds to CAPA's analysis of North Atlantic JVs to give further context for this discussion by looking at changes in the number and nature of airports with direct routes on the North Atlantic in summer 2019 versus 2012, the year before Norwegian entered.