As international tourist interest in the United States continues to flounder under the current administration and general political environment, multiple airlines have scaled back a number of their flights to different U.S. cities.
Iceland-based low-cost airline Play is axing all its service to the U.S. by October while fellow Nordic budget competitor Norse Atlantic Airways (NRSAF) is similarly discontinuing flights to Miami International Airport (MIA) from Oslo and Berlin as well as a flight to London Gatwick Airport (LGW) from Harry Reid International in Las Vegas by 2026.
Instead, the airline will redirect the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners (BA) used for those flights to routes to Thailand from Scandinavian capitals like Stockholm and Oslo.
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Delta may soon follow British Airways in scrapping New York-London flight
While both are located outside of London, London Gatwick is generally considered more manageable than the international hub of London Heathrow (LHR); it serves a greater number of low-cost carriers as well as mainstream airlines flying shorter or alternative routes.
Due to the high volume of traffic between the two cities, both British Airways and Delta Air Lines (DAL) had been running New York-London flights both into LHR and LGW. Earlier in August, British Airways announced that it would consolidate its network by cutting the Gatwick service while, as first reported by aviation website Simple Flying, Delta may soon also be following suit.
Related: Another airline cancels New York-Paris flight due to low demand
The route that ran seasonally during the busiest summer months is set to be retired on September 7 without plans for a 2026 return. The airline had been running the route since 2023 on a Boeing 767-300ER plane with 216 passenger seats.
If the speculation that first started circulating online amid aviation analysts proves to be correct, Norse Atlantic will be the only remaining carrier offering the JFK-Gatwick flight. Delta could not be immediately reached to confirm or deny the rumors.
Are the cut New York-London flights consolidation or lower demand?
While the Gatwick cuts are above all a move toward consolidation (British Airways also recently announced new flights to U.S. cities like Austin, Dallas and San Diego), they still reduce the airlines' total capacity between London and New York by thousands of seats each week.
Last week, a British Airways spokesperson issued a statement saying that customers “prefer to fly from Heathrow when travelling to New York, which is why all nine of our daily JFK services will operate from there in summer 2026.”
More on travel:
- United Airlines places big bet on new flights to trendy destination
- Government issues new travel advisory on popular beach destination
- Another country just issued a new visa requirement for visitors
When announcing such cuts, airlines rarely comment on slowing demand for a particular region and instead focus on other parts of the world where they see greater strength.
“We are not changing who we are — we are simply focusing on what works,” Play CEO Einar Örn Ólafsson said in a statement on the cancelation of flights to New York Stewart International Airport (SWF) and Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) from Reykjavik.
As both the Delta and British Airways cuts are to routes that were initially supposed to be retired only for the season, there are no refunds to give out — no tickets for the period after the last flight have been available for sale.
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