Only 51% Full: New York-JFK's 10 Emptiest Long-Haul Routes [List & Map]

Department of Transportation data covering March 2025 through February 2026 reveals that ten long-haul routes operating to and from John F. Kennedy International Airport failed to achieve load factors above 70%, with Kuwait Airways' New York–Kuwait City corridor recording the weakest performance in the dataset at just 50.63% across 112,808 scheduled seats. That figure sits more than 32 percentage points below the JFK long-haul average of 83.2%, a gap that underscores the severity of underperformance on that corridor. The route has since ceased operations, a development consistent with the broader disruption to Gulf-region air service stemming from geopolitical instability in the Middle East. Gulf Air's Bahrain service, by contrast, continues to operate despite the same regional environment, posting a load factor of 68.35% on 24,671 seats—a figure that, while below the benchmark, reflects a carrier apparently willing to sustain the route through a difficult operating period.

Two West African routes served by legacy carriers round out the weakest performers in the dataset, with Delta Air Lines recording 57.57% on its Lagos corridor and Ethiopian Airlines posting 57.92% on its Addis Ababa service routed via Abidjan. Both figures represent substantial inefficiencies for widebody operations, where break-even load factors on long-haul aircraft such as the Boeing 787 or Airbus A350 typically demand utilization well above the 70% threshold before accounting for fuel burn, crew costs, and transatlantic overflight fees. Ethiopian's continued investment in JFK—including a planned move into Terminal One—signals that the carrier views the route as a strategic network anchor rather than a near-term profit driver, a posture common among state-affiliated carriers building intercontinental reach.

The European segment of the list reflects two distinct dynamics. Air Serbia's daily Belgrade–JFK service on Airbus A330 equipment achieved only a 66.56% load factor against 87,227 scheduled seats, illustrating the challenge a relatively small Southeastern European carrier faces in sustaining premium transatlantic frequency in a market dominated by much larger network operators. The pair of Azores Airlines routes—to Terceira at 63.71% and Ponta Delgada at 68.27%—reflect a different constraint: thin origin-and-destination demand on a narrow island-market itinerary. With Terceira no longer operating as of current schedules and Ponta Delgada running just four weekly rotations on the A321neo, Azores Airlines appears to have rationalized capacity in response to the load factor data, a pragmatic adjustment that illustrates how airlines calibrate frequency and gauge selection to demand signals.

For aviation operators and flight departments tracking transatlantic network health, this dataset carries several practical implications. Routes with persistent load factors below 65%—particularly those operated by carriers without large feeder networks at JFK—face elevated suspension risk, which affects connecting itinerary planning and the reliability of alternate routings for business aviation operators using commercial positioning flights. The continued operation of EgyptAir's Cairo service and Neos' Palermo leisure route, both hovering near 70%, indicates that neither is at immediate risk of withdrawal, though both remain vulnerable to seasonal demand softness. More broadly, the data reinforces that JFK's competitive long-haul environment rewards carriers with deep hub connectivity and loyal frequent-flyer bases, while thinner-market operators—regardless of origin region—face a structurally more difficult commercial equation on one of the world's most contested international routes.