More U.S. airports offering international flights

Nov. 13, 2007
Open Skies Treaty will eliminate most barriers

U.S. airlines' race to boost international flying is expanding service at U.S. airports beyond the traditional gateways.

For January, airlines have scheduled 1,790 foreign departures a day from continental U.S. airports, 4.7% more than a year earlier, a USA TODAY analysis of data from OAGback Aviation Solutions.

Though Miami and New York John F. Kennedy remain the busiest airports for international flights, places such as Fort Lauderdale, Windsor Locks, Conn., Cleveland and Denver have seen double-digit annual growth.

Each of the six traditional U.S. airlines -- American, United, Delta, Continental, Northwest and US Airways -- have been boosting international markets, partly to escape the cutthroat competition of the domestic market.

Discounters JetBlue, Spirit and Frontier are expanding international flying, mostly to the Caribbean and Mexico. A new breed of business-class airlines -- Silverjet and Eos, for example -- is growing on business routes such as New York-London. At the same time, foreign carriers such as Lufthansa, Qatar and Jet Airways are flying to new U.S. cities as they take delivery of longer-range aircraft.

Airports, meanwhile, want to cash in on the bonanza, which promises to get richer after March, when the recent Open Skies Treaty between the United States and the European Union dismantles many barriers that now restrict trans-Atlantic service.

"These airports want to participate in this growth, because this is the direction of the future," says Chris Spidle, research director for Sabre Airline Solutions.

Charlotte, for example, plans to add a 25-gate international terminal that would open in four years. Austin-Bergstrom plans to build a special, no-frills terminal for Mexican low-cost carrier VivaAerobus, which is seeking approvals to fly to six Mexican cities, including Cancun and Guadalajara.

At Fort Lauderdale, Spirit Airlines now has daily flights to Costa Rica and Peru, and the airport is now angling for its first route to the United Kingdom since before 9/11.

"We're really a busy international terminal," says Steve Belleme, the airport's business development chief.

In January, Fort Lauderdale will handle 80 international departures a day, 23% more than last year, the USA TODAY analysis shows.

Though Fort Lauderdale will have just 80 daily non-stop international flights vs. nearby Miami's 180, it's growing at a faster rate, thanks mainly to discounter Spirit Airlines and small commuter airline Lynxair. Spirit has added or expanded service to the Bahamas, Haiti, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru. It's catering to vacationers and people with family ties to those countries.

International growth is so brisk that the airport is adding another lane at the security checkpoint. It's also increasing its Customs facility to handle more than 700 passengers an hour.

In January, Denver will have 36 flights a day, 16% more than a year ago. Denver-based discounter Frontier has driven most of the growth, with new or expanded service to Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; San Jose, Costa Rica; and Vancouver, British Columbia. But German airline Lufthansa continued its U.S. expansion by nearly doubling flying capacity to Germany by adding service to Munich.

At Cleveland, Continental has added twice-daily service to Ottawa. At Hartford, Northwest now has a daily flight to Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Mark Treadaway, the airport's chief airline recruiter for Washington Dulles, said attracting new international service to traditional gateways such as his will get tougher, because new longer-range aircraft can fly to more U.S. cities. At the same time, some of the governmental restrictions on such flights are fading away.

Nonetheless, in January, airlines have scheduled 57 non-stop international flights a day at Dulles -- 18% more than a year ago, the analysis shows. Among the new countries served from Dulles in the past year: Ireland, China, Panama, Italy, Spain and Qatar. Top airports with non-stops abroad

Continental U.S. airports with the most non-stop flights to international destinations. Average daily departures scheduled for January 2008 and change from January 2007.

Airport (rank) Daily departures Pct. change

Miami 180 2.7%

New York John F. Kennedy 178 8.5%

Los Angeles 146 0.7%

Chicago O'Hare 131 4.8%

Houston Bush Intercontinental 122 2.5%

Newark 118 11.0%

Atlanta 94 -0.8%

Fort Lauderdale 80 23.0%

San Francisco 66 9.4%

Dallas/Fort Worth 65 -5.3%

Washington Dulles 57 18.2%

Boston 47 12.1%

Philadelphia 44

Seattle/Tacoma42unch.

Detroit 423.8%

Denver3616.3%

Minneapolis-St. Paul354.4%

New York LaGuardia327.5%

Phoenix 28-0.6%

Charlotte278.5%

Las Vegas261.8%

Orlando259.1%

West Palm Beach, Fla.12-1.3%

Cleveland Hopkins1221.3%

Salt Lake City11-26.4%

Portland, Ore.11-3.1%

Cincinnati11-12.5%

Washington Reagan National9-1.0%

Bradley (Windsor Locks, Conn.)714.1%

Baltimore Washington7-13.3%

Source: USA TODAY analysis of schedule data from OAGback Aviation Solutions

Arrival: A Northwest Airlines flight arrives at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn. Daily international non-stop departures at the airport are increasing to seven, or 14%, next year.