U.S. airlines are extending international flight seasons beyond traditional summer peaks as travelers seek to avoid extreme heat, crowds, and high prices. American Airlines' Edinburgh route from New York began in March, United Airlines' Newark-Palermo service runs through December, and Delta Air Lines' Rome route from Minneapolis continues into January—months later than in past years. The shift comes as the industry faces a $100 billion fuel cost increase this year, according to the International Air Transport Association, pushing carriers to maximize revenue from high-spending customers on premium international routes. Industry executives say strong demand and flexible work policies are driving year-round travel, forcing airlines to rethink decades-old seasonal playbooks. Delta and United shares hit records in recent weeks as investors bet on airlines' ability to absorb fuel costs through trimmed unprofitable flights and extended profitable seasons.
Airlines Extend European Routes Beyond Traditional Summer Season
Flights to European vacation destinations now start when there's still snow on the ground in the U.S. and wrap up when leaves are falling off the trees, instead of following traditional late-spring to late-summer travel seasons. American Airlines' flight to Edinburgh, Scotland, from New York began in March. United Airlines' nonstop route to Palermo, Sicily from Newark, New Jersey, will end in December and Delta Air Lines' service to Rome from Minneapolis, Minnesota, will run into January.
Delta President Peter Carter said international vacation seasons used to be more defined. "It used to be so much lumpier. There used to be more: good season, bad season," Carter said in an interview. "There are so many places you can go in Europe year-round and still have an amazing experience, and that's why we're seeing such good demand into Europe."
Patrick Quayle, United Airlines' senior vice president who designs the carrier's network, said in an interview last month: "We've seen this massive, what I would call, the creep of the seasons—the shoulder season is blending into the full season." Shoulder season refers to the period between a destination's peak tourist season and its offseason.
International flights to Europe generally carry more premium seats like lie-flat pods than smaller jets used for domestic travel. Business-class fares on some of those routes can cost $10,000 for a round-trip instead of less than half that on a domestic route.
Heat Waves and Flexible Work Policies Drive Offseason Travel Demand
In late June, locals and tourists faced dangerous record temperatures throughout Europe, where air conditioning isn't widespread. Misting stations were set up from Warsaw, Poland, to Rome. The Paris LGBTQ+ Pride march was postponed, among other events, and public alcohol consumption was briefly banned in the city.
Residents of many European cities, like Barcelona, Spain, and Venice, Italy have been raising concerns about overcrowding during peak summer months. Countries throughout Europe have been bringing in record numbers of visitors.
For younger generations, more flexible work policies are helping some consumers, even those with children, take trips outside of late spring and summer. Baby Boomers are armed with piles of cash and plenty of time, giving them more flexibility for travel. "Delta's target demographic tends to be a little bit older and a little bit wealthier," said Jeff Arinder, Delta vice president of international network planning.
Airfare overall is up this year compared with last as airlines try to pass along rising costs to customers. Flights between the U.S. and Athens, Greece, on June 22 were going for $988 round-trip, up from $810 last year but down from $1,350 two months earlier, according to flight-tracking site Kayak.
The increase in shoulder season and off-peak travel is forcing Delta to rethink its maintenance and crew schedules. "We would never give airplanes to the maintenance hangers, if we could avoid it, in the summertime ... because that's when we made all the money," Arinder told CNBC. "We are now doing more maintenance in the summertime because we want to save those planes for the fall." He said Delta is trying to "really flatten out our seasonality as much as possible."
United Airlines Extends Newark-Palermo Route Through December
United extended its nonstop flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Palermo, Sicily, through Dec. 16, rather than ending it in September, with Boeing 767s. Sicily has long been marketed as a summertime destination. Daytime highs can regularly reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit along the coast with little, if any, rain in July. In December, however, the highs sometimes barely touch 60 degrees on the Italian island and rain is more likely.
"I don't think it's that experimental. I think it's a really safe bet," United's Quayle said. Many coastal hotels also close during the winter months. The Four Seasons' San Domenico Palace, in Taormina, Sicily, where the second season of HBO's "White Lotus" was shot, closes in mid-November through early spring.
Manager Imelda Shllaku told CNBC that in the past four years the hotel has had a "remarkable increase in bookings from U.S guests" in March, April, October and November. "High-net-worth travelers are increasingly seeking experiences with genuine cultural currency, and Sicily's shoulder season is simply better suited to delivering them," she said by email, pointing to behind-the-scenes tours of Noto in southeast Sicily and nighttime trips to Mount Etna. The hotel will reopen March 1, a spokeswoman said.
Delta is planning to extend its flights from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to Catania, on the east coast of Sicily, through Jan. 3, compared with Oct. 24 last year. It plans to resume the route on March 8, 2027. This year, it started the route on May 1 and May 21 in 2025.
Airlines Redeploy Widebody Aircraft for Year-Round European Service
United and Delta aren't alone, as airlines across the board are redeploying some of their biggest planes to maintain service to Europe for the full year or well into the offseason. "When airlines are looking to purchase aircraft, they have to think about 'How are we going to use this airplane year-round because it's an expensive piece of machinery,'" said Brett Snyder, founder of Cranky Flier blog and Cranky Concierge travel agency. "They know in the summer they won't have a problem sending these widebodies to Europe. Now they can stretch that further into the shoulder season."
Seattle-based Alaska Airlines, which debuted its first service across the Atlantic this year to London, Rome and Reykjavík, Iceland, is keeping this in mind. President and Chief Financial Officer Shane Tackett told CNBC that travelers are becoming more flexible. "A lot of people want to go see the same destinations ... [and that] makes it like very logical that those seasons would start to spread," he said. "Maybe when I was growing up, my parents wouldn't have even thought of taking me out of school in September, and I think maybe parents are a little more like, 'Yeah, let's go somewhere fun, and you'll catch up on school when you get back.'"
American Airlines is stretching some of the seasons of U.S. trans-Atlantic travel. October "is not as strong as June or July to Europe, but it's becoming a peak month for us," said Brian Znotins, the carrier's senior vice president of network planning. But American doesn't want to push planes too far off their proven track record for ski-and-sun-seeker vacationers in winter. "I'm not going to mince words: January and February are still very off-beat months. I would hate to have anyone come away and say that they're good months, they're just less off-peak than they used to be," he said.
Atul Mehta, a finance executive based in Chicago, said he is taking his family to Portugal this summer shortly before school resumes, but said when he visits family in Bahrain in the winter "we have taken them out of school."
FAQ
Why are U.S. airlines extending European flight seasons beyond summer?
Airlines are extending European routes into shoulder and offseason months because travelers are seeking to avoid extreme heat, crowds, and high summer prices. Industry executives say strong demand driven by flexible work policies and affluent retirees is making year-round European travel profitable, forcing carriers to rethink traditional seasonal schedules.
How much are fuel costs impacting airline profits this year?
The International Air Transport Association reports that the surge in jet fuel is expected to take a $100 billion bite out of airline profits this year. Airlines are responding by trimming unprofitable flights and extending high-revenue international routes to maximize earnings from premium-cabin customers on widebody aircraft.
