routeloads.
Explore the map
70K+ route pairs mapped DOT data through Mar 2026

How full are flight routes in America?

Explore monthly seat occupancy, average fares, and on-time rates from U.S. DOT data. These are historical route averages, not live seat availability on an individual flight. Greener means lower average occupancy.

Search routes, city pairs, airports, airport codes, or airlines.
Try
7.7B
Passengers
78%
Avg load factor
70K+
Route pairs
’18–’26
Coverage
Source U.S. DOT BTS · T-100 Free, public data — no logins, no paywalls.
Monthly U.S. DOT data, latest Mar 2026. T-100 = monthly directional segment capacity · DB1B = market fares · on-time = nonstop carrier performance.
Historical data stories

A few things hiding in the DOT tables.

These cards turn the raw route boards into quick “wait, really?” reads — packed cabins, empty flights, fare quirks, delays, growth, and carrier load races.

Load factor
79% full
System load factor · trailing 12 months vs 2019
−2.8 pts vs 2019

U.S. flights run 2.8 points emptier than in 2019 — about 56M more unsold seats a year, or 154K a day.

1.1B passengers 1.4B seats
Fewer flights, more seats
128 seats per departure
Average gauge · trailing 12 months vs 2019
+12 seats

Departures are 2.6% down on 2019 while seats are 7.6% up — the flying has shifted toward larger-gauge airlines.

10.8M departures
Busiest route in America
JFK → LHR
New York → London
3.1M passengers

The most-travelled city pair in the data, up from #5 in 2019 — it did not grow, the domestic giants shrank.

81% full
Biggest slide
LAX
Los Angeles
#2 → #5

Los Angeles has fallen from #2 to #5 among U.S. airports since 2019, with passengers 15.8% down.

73M passengers
Fastest growing airport
SJU
San Juan
+45% vs 2019

San Juan is up 45% on 2019 while U.S. air travel overall grew 3.9%.

13M passengers
Airline load race
Who is flying fullest?
Major U.S. carriers ranked by system load factor.
Delta
83%
American
82%
Southwest
75%
Click to compare all carriers
Explore the platform

One doorway into routes, airports, airlines, and the monthly story.

routeloads is more than a map: every major slice of the DOT data now has a clean entry point, from city pairs to carrier dossiers.

↔

Rank every route

Sort city pairs by load factor, fare, seats, on-time rate, and growth — then jump into the route page.

Route-pair network70K+
⌖

Browse by airport

See which nonstop markets are fullest or emptiest from each airport, plus the carriers shaping that demand.

Airport pages600
◈

Compare airlines

Major-carrier dossiers show load, passenger volume, departures, network breadth, and route-level strengths.

Carrier dossiersBig 6
◎

Explore the route map

Scan the national route web visually: green for emptier markets, red for packed ones, with fare and on-time context.

InteractiveMap
▧

Read the monthly report

Each BTS drop gets translated into route swings, new markets, discontinued markets, and carrier capacity moves.

LatestMar 2026
⌁

Open the Industry Lab

Compare carrier efficiency, gauge and stage length, airport concentration, growth, and quarterly Form 41 financials.

Analyst workspaceT-100 + Form 41
Latest signals

What changed in U.S. flying this month?

Open latest report →
Monthly DOT digest

Route loads, new markets, and carrier shifts — summarized.

The report turns each BTS release into a readable briefing: which routes filled up, which softened, where carriers added capacity, and what disappeared from the map.

3–4moBTS reporting lag
12moTrailing comparisons
100%Public source data
Read latest report How it is computed

Load swings

Find routes where average seat fill moved sharply year over year — useful for spotting demand shifts before they become obvious.

See route swings →

New and discontinued markets

Track where scheduled service appeared, disappeared, or returned in the T-100 data.

Review network changes →

Carrier capacity moves

Compare which airlines are adding seats, concentrating demand, or spreading capacity across more routes.

Compare airlines →
Airline comparison

Major carriers, side by side.

Use airline pages when the question is not “which route?” but “which network is fuller, broader, or shifting fastest?”

WN
Southwest
1.26BPassengers
75%
AA
American
1.18BPassengers
81%
DL
Delta
1.15BPassengers
81%
UA
United
910.5MPassengers
81%
B6
JetBlue
301.6MPassengers
79%
AS
Alaska
257.0MPassengers
78%
Popular entry points

High-interest routes

These are natural search landing pages for people comparing busy transcon, leisure, and hub-to-hub markets.

JFK → LAX SFO → EWR LAX → LAS ORD → DEN SEA → SFO ATL → MCO

Airport views

Airport pages are the fastest way to understand which routes drive a local market and where seats are hardest to find.

JFK LAX ORD DEN ATL SEA DFW SFO
Why it is different

Actual flown data, made searchable.

Most travel sites show prices and availability for what is on sale right now. routeloads shows what airlines actually flew: seats, passengers, fares, and performance from public U.S. DOT filings.

✓DOT BTS T-100 for route capacity and passenger counts.
✓DB1B market fares for average fare context where available.
✓No logins or scraping — just public data translated into practical views.
Forecast / nowcast layer

Mind the BTS lag.

T-100 data trails real time by a few months. The forecast layer bridges that gap with route-level trend estimates and confidence bands, so the product can say what is likely happening now.

ObservedOfficial BTS
NowcastCurrent gap
ForecastNext month