Between April 2025 and March 2026, 132.9 million long-haul passengers flew to/from the US. The country’s Department of Transportation (DOT) shows foreign airlines transported six in ten passengers. In total, nearly 80 carriers had long-haul services, with an average load factor of 82.7%.
In this article, ‘long-haul’ refers to any nonstop flight covering a minimum of 2,650 nautical miles, which is slightly more than 3,100 statute miles and about 5,000 kilometers. United Airlines uses 3,000 statute miles as its cutoff point.
The US’s 10 Long-Haul Routes With The Lowest Load Factors
All the US’ long-haul routes with at least 4,000 round-trip passengers were examined using DOT data. Only those that operated in the 12 months to March 2026 were considered.
An airline’s load factor (which is technically the seat factor) is just one performance measure, and it should not be considered in isolation. Most of the following routes were obviously poor, and some have consequently ended. However, it is always about how and why it was achieved. This analysis follows the recent exploration of the ten worst Europe-US routes by load factors.
Context can be critical. For example, United Airlines’ sole entry is largely because the route to Adelaide is brand-new. Nonetheless, barely filling half the available seats, even with the financial incentives underpinning it, is not good. This very long service is explored in the next section.
Papeete to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
Kuwait to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
132,796 (it is unclear if this is only for the airline’s nonstop services or for its one-stop flights via Frankfurt, too. If the latter, it is unclear if the fifth freedom passengers are included)
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Adelaide
Addis Ababa Bole International Airport (ADD) to JFK
75,138 (the airline’s Addis-Rome-JFK-Addis service, with nonstop flights back to Africa, ended in September 2025. All flights are now via West Africa)
15,500 (flights only resumed in December 2024)
ADD to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
ADD to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
Riyadh to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
They involve eight airlines, with only one from the US. Find out all ten underperforming routes here!
The Star Alliance member took off from the airline’s Pacific hub to ADL on December 11, 2025, in the middle of the blisteringly hot summer Down Under and in the run-up to Christmas. It was the first time that North America had nonstop service to South Australia. Both the South Australian Government and ADL contributed to the financial incentives package, although how much was agreed and for what time period is unknown.
United initially operated three times weekly on the Boeing 787-9 through March 26, 2026, which was shortly before northern carriers switched to summer schedules. DOT data shows that the carrier filled 68.5% of seats in December (Christmas helped), followed by 58.9% in January, 33.7% (!) in February, and 53.9% in March.
February is usually one of the hardest months for route performance. While all these figures are low, the route was brand-new, and it is not known what United had projected for its first season. The ultra-long nonstop service, which covers 7,013 nautical miles (12,988 km) each way, is due to return on December 3, 2026, and will run until March 25, 2027, with the same frequency as before. It will be good to see how things change in the second season.
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Ethiopian Airlines has had passenger flights to ATL, the world’s busiest airport for passengers, since May 2023. Like most, but not all, of the Star Alliance member’s North American services, flights stop in Rome to refuel and change crew en route to the ATL. They operate nonstop back to ADD.
The stopover is simply because of ADD’s high elevation, which reduces takeoff performance with a high load. However, DOT data shows that fewer than six in ten seats were filled. Of course, if flights operated nonstop from ADD, a considerable amount of fuel would have to be carried, and it is possible, but unconfirmed, that there’d be a lot of freight, too.
It has always been an odd route, not least because Ethiopian does not have a codeshare agreement with Delta Air Lines. That is one reason for the low load. Traffic was not higher because Flightradar24 shows that the route was suspended between early February and May 2026.
The number of passengers flying between ATL and Africa is also not particularly high. This is especially problematic as Ethiopian relies on passengers connecting across the vast continent to help fill its aircraft. Booking data shows the Anglophone cities of Lagos and Nairobi were the two most popular markets.
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