It’s no secret that the United States represents a key long-haul market for many major European flag carriers, and British Airways is no exception to this trend. In fact, such is the demand for flights between the United Kingdom and the US that the oneworld founding member’s US schedule in the third quarter of 2026 is its largest ever, with 5% more flights than the previous record Q3. The 2026 FIFA World Cup is likely to play a role on this front.

When all is said and done, current scheduling data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shows that British Airways will average 50 US-bound flights a day from its two main UK bases between July 1 and September 30 of this year.

Crunching The Numbers

Credit: British Airways

The carrier has scheduled a grand total of 4,571 one-way departures from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) and London Gatwick Airport (LGW) to the US this Q3. Compared to the same period last year, this represents a 4.7% year-on-year increase in flights, with seat capacity on these services having risen by an even greater margin of 4.8% from 1,226,766 to 1,286,033​​​​​. Every single one of these flights uses widebody aircraft.

BA’s twin-aisle fleet is diverse, and this is reflected in the fact that no fewer than seven widebody models will be used on its US flights this Q3. The Boeing 777-200ER accounts for 1,584 rotations, followed by the 777-300ER (1,007), 787-10 (769), Airbus A350-1000 (463), A380 (429), 787-8 (228), and 787-9 (91). The latter two types will serve the recently launched Heathrow to St Louis (STL) route. Neil Chernoff, British Airways’ Chief Planning and Strategy Officer, commented on the new service.

“With the strong support of the airport, tourism partners, and the wider St. Louis community, we look forward to welcoming more business and leisure customers to discover everything the city has to offer.”

Top Routes & What’s Changed?

Credit: British Airways

It will come as little surprise to see New York-JFK as BA’s top US destination this Q3: 781 flights from Heathrow are planned. In fact, all of the UK flag carrier’s top nine US routes by frequency originate at Heathrow, with JFK being followed by Boston, Los Angeles, Washington Dulles (276 each), Chicago O’Hare (267), Austin, Newark, San Francisco, and Seattle (184 each). BA is currently recruiting ‘taxi crew’ pilots to optimize its O’Hare ops.

As far as what has changed year-on-year is concerned, the biggest frequency boost can be seen on the route from Heathrow to Dallas/Fort Worth: BA didn’t serve this corridor at all in Q3 of 2025, but this time around, there will be daily flights, amounting to 92 departures across the quarter. In addition to the aforementioned brand-new St Louis route, BA will also operate 18 flights from Heathrow to Orlando this Q3, compared to none last time around.

Elsewhere, existing US-bound BA routes from Heathrow that have seen year-on-year Q3 frequency boosts include Miami (71 more), New York-JFK (45), Las Vegas (40), Cincinnati (14), Austin (13), San Diego (11), Houston (four), and Washington (one). Meanwhile, BA has reduced frequencies from Heathrow to Nashville (16 fewer flights), Chicago O’Hare (six), and New Orleans (five).

Credit: Great Circle Map

London Gatwick Airport (LGW) has always played second fiddle to Heathrow as far as BA is concerned, and this is reflected in its US footprint. This Q3, the airline has scheduled just 264 US-bound departures from Gatwick, compared to 393 last time around, representing a year-on-year decrease of 32.8%.

Most notably, two routes have been cut altogether: the UK flag carrier no longer flies from Gatwick to New York-JFK or Las Vegas, whereas last Q3 saw 88 and 37 departures, respectively. The only remaining routes link Gatwick with Florida: Orlando has 181 Q3 departures, and Tampa has 83.