North Atlantic aviation: UK is largest, but others are growing fast

The UK is by far the biggest European market by airline capacity to the USA, with more than twice as much as the number two, Germany. It is also more than the combined capacity to the USA from Germany and third placed France. These top three countries account for more than half of Europe-US seats, while 17 Western European countries account for 95% of Europe-US capacity.

The Netherlands, Ireland and Iceland are relatively small aviation markets overall, but they punch above their weight on routes to the US, thanks to their airlines' hub strategies.

This gives Iceland the fastest seat growth rate to the US from Europe this year and the second fastest over the past five years. Greece has grown most rapidly on a five year view, albeit from a very small base, driven by US airline expansion and Emirates' fifth freedom entry.

Growth from Portugal has also been strong, thanks to a resurgent TAP Air Portugal. The Scandinavian countries have experienced rapid capacity growth to the US as a result of Norwegian's 2013 entry and SAS' consequent decision to expand in response.

This report ranks the size and growth of the markets to the US from Western European countries.