It's another big year for transatlantic travel — but at least 1 European airline sees signs of trouble
Lufthansa CEO Jens Ritter is emphatic about the state of the transatlantic travel market: Business is good and continues to grow.
"We don't see any impact on the booking situation right now," he said at an event celebrating the Frankfurt-based carrier's new Allegris first-class cabin in Munich on Wednesday.
Fly a few hundred miles south to the home of Lufthansa's sibling carrier, Swiss, and the outlook is not quite so rosy. There are signs that Swiss vacationers are beginning to look to destinations other than the U.S. for their travel plans, Léa Wertheimer, the head of corporate communications at Swiss, said at the event.
Corporate demand is steady, but leisure travel is down, she added.
The issue at hand was whether U.S. President Donald Trump's policies, from potentially steep tariffs on European goods to diminished support for NATO, were affecting demand among Europeans for travel to the U.S.
At stake is one of the largest and most lucrative long-haul international markets in the world. Since the coronavirus pandemic, demand has boomed across the North Atlantic as more Americans have sought out vacations in Europe and vice versa. That boom has buoyed profits everywhere, from airlines like Delta Air Lines to International Airlines Group, the owner of British Airways and Iberia, and the Lufthansa Group.
A weakening of the transatlantic market could spell financial difficulties for legacy carriers on both sides of the pond.
Already, Trump's threats of tariffs have hit the U.S.-Canada market. Canadian carriers, including Air Canada and Porter Airlines, have seen demand drop and are considering cutting flights. And United Airlines, the largest U.S. carrier in the market, is pulling back some of its transborder flights.
United is pulling flights from U.S.-Canada routes as part of a plan to retire 21 aircraft early following a weaker-than-expected first quarter, CEO Scott Kirby said at an investor event March 11.
We've seen a "big drop in Canadian traffic going to the U.S.," he added.
But at the same event where Kirby spoke of United cutting flights to Canada, he and executives from American Airlines and Delta said demand to Europe remained strong.
"We continue to see nice advance bookings for both transatlantic and transpacific," Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta, said March 11.
American plans to add or resume five routes to Europe, including Miami to Rome and Philadelphia to Milan, this summer. Delta is adding eight new routes, including its first-ever service to Catania in Italy. United's European plans include flights to Bilbao in Spain, Faro in Portugal and Nuuk in Greenland.
United was the largest airline between the U.S. and Europe by seats in 2024, schedule data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows. Lufthansa was fifth — second among European carriers after British Airways — and Swiss a distant 12th.
The big European and U.S. airlines all operate joint ventures across the North Atlantic that allow them to coordinate schedules and fares. The pacts include Lufthansa and Swiss with United; British Airways and Iberia with American; and Air France and KLM with Delta.
For now, Ritter said Lufthansa wishes it could grow more to the U.S. The airline faces growth constraints owing primarily to delivery delays at Airbus and Boeing. Certification of the carrier's new Allegris seats on the Boeing 787 has resulted in 15 completed planes parked at the plane-maker's plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, awaiting sign-off for delivery.
"We have a very, very strong connection to the U.S.," Ritter said, adding that it "continues to grow."
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