In the 12 months to July 2024, Los Angeles International had non-stop and one-stop same-plane service to 78 international destinations, including a one-off service to Nice. Of course, passengers could also transfer en route to reach many other places.
Examining booking data shows that approximately 39% of its total international traffic had to connect. I recently looked at San Francisco’s largest unserved long-haul markets and will examine Los Angeles’ soon.
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Los Angeles’ top 15 international markets
They are shown below. All data is point-to-point (regardless of whether non-stop or not) at the city level. Figures are rounded from Los Angeles International only for the year to July. Of course, the results would be different at the airport level, although London Heathrow would be first with 982,000—more on the London market below.
‘PDEW’ means passengers daily each way and ignores seasonality, which can be significant. The base fare is one-way and excludes taxes, any fuel surcharge, and other add-ons. It is averaged across all passengers in all classes.
London: 1,103,000 roundtrip passengers (PDEW: 1,511; base fare: $824 one-way) Guadalajara: 964,000 (PDEW: 1,321; base fare: $84) Tokyo: 956,000 (PDEW: 1,310; base fare: $725) Mexico City: 722,000 (PDEW: 982; base fare: $206) Vancouver: 659,000 (PDEW: 903; base fare: $180) Cancun: 642,000 (PDEW: 879; base fare: $210) Los Cabos: 631,000 (PDEW: 864; base fare: $173) Toronto: 572,000 (PDEW: 784; base fare: $334) San Salvador: 570,000 (PDEW: 781; base fare: $191) Seoul: 562,000 (PDEW: 770; base fare: $825) Paris: 447,000 (PDEW: 612; base fare: $707) Puerto Vallarta: 438,000 (PDEW: 600; base fare: $152) Manila: 383,000 (PDEW: 525; base fare: $631) Guatamala City: 378,000 (PDEW: 518; base fare: $195) Sydney: 301,000 (PDEW: 412; base fare: $1,287)
Photo: Phuong D. Nguyen | Shutterstock
The huge Los Angeles-London market
In the year to July, this city pair had more than 1.1 million roundtrip point-to-point passengers: London Heathrow 981,000 and Gatwick 122,000. About 93% flew non-stop, and the rest connected en route.
Those figures are just for those who traveled between the two cities. Many people also transited to other flights in London and Los Angeles, but this is not covered here.
As traffic is considerable, so is capacity. An average of 11 daily flights across the year helped, although there were as many as 13 daily and as few as seven.
Six carriers had non-stop flights: American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic to Heathrow and Norse Atlantic to Gatwick. Delta pulled out in May 2024, while Norse began flights in June 2023.
Photo: Bradley Caslin | Shutterstock
How did the base fares vary?
Unsurprisingly, the base fares varied massively. Reflecting Heathrow’s premium nature and the number of first and business travelers, point-to-point passengers paid an average of $878 one-way (again, for all passengers and all cabins).
In contrast, it was less than half that at Gatwick ($431). Most Gatwick passengers flew with Norse, and that average fare was for its economy and premium cabins before revenue from bags, food, etc., were included. It is not a like-for-like comparison with Heathrow. Other passengers connected with Aer Lingus in Dublin, JetBlue in JFK/Boston, Delta in JFK, etc.