The three global U.S. airlines all cite traffic gains from the 2026 soccer World Cup, played largely in the United States, and Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said Friday that the carriers may well continue to benefit.
As Delta on Friday led off the industry’s second quarter earnings reports, executives responded to questions from reporters and analysts about the World Cup’s impact. United will report July 16th, while American will report on July 23rd. American said Friday that it has added more flights than any competitor to the 16 U.S. host cities for the games, with an extra 27,000 seats on 12 routes to support fan travel.
During the Delta call, Joe Esposito, chief commercial officer, said, “We’re the beneficiary of World Cup,” noting, “That’s not significant enough to make a huge difference to the quarter, but we see it flight by flight.” With more games coming up, “You’ll see closer in demand as people are trying to get to that specific city for the game,” he said.
Then Bastian added that the games may have had an intangible benefit. “I think the US has done a wonderful job of showing what a great country we are in welcoming visitation and getting the international inbound back again, both visually, because as everyone has watched, you couldn’t have asked, I think, for a better advertisement to come to the USA,” Bastian said.
“I do think it’ll have an impact on the mix in terms of having greater inbound participation in the next year,” he said. “And while it may not change our specific market choices, I do think it’ll enhance the mix.”
Not just enthusiastic crowds, but also, in some cases, the receptions contributed generally to a positive impression by the United States. In particular, the Algerian national soccer team was warmly welcomed to Lawrence Kan., outside Kansas City. “Approximately 2,000 soccer fans, some waving Algerian National flags, others singing songs, banging on drums and expressing themselves via their favorite spectator chants, applauded wildly as the Algeria National Team bus followed several police motorcycles into the parking lot of the DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton,” The Kansas City Star reported on June 8th.
In recent years, amidst talk of tariffs and other conflicts with Europe and Canada, traffic from the regions to the U.S. has declined, although the impact has been diminished by increased U.S. travel to Europe. In fact, earlier on the Delta call, Esposito said that on transatlantic routes, “As we’ve been talking about in past, our foreign point of sale has been a little bit softer, but we’ve transitioned to more of a US point of sale, where we’re over 80% now for US point of sale in the transatlantic.”
Delta in the past has been early to spot travel trends, including the post-pandemic increase in “revenge travel” as baby boomers made up for lost transatlantic trips by spending more money on better seats and flying in once slower travel seasons in the spring and fall.
In the coming weeks, United and American can be expected to extoll their own passenger increases due to World Cup travel.
American has been the most-committed to the games, positioned as the “Official North American Airline Supplier of FIFA World Cup 26,” in partnership with Qatar Airways. Qatar, a Oneworld member and codeshare partner, has had prominently displayed sideline advertising during games.
In an e-mail, An American spokeswoman noted that “Since the start of the tournament, American has operated 158 flights that were added or operated with larger aircraft specifically for the tournament, carrying thousands of passengers between host cities.”
Along with more flights between Los Angeles and Seattle or Boston and Dallas-Fort Worth, American introduced nonstop service between Atlanta and Kansas City during the quarterfinal round. The carrier said it has more than 2,400 peak day departures scheduled in June and July to the 16 host cities.
Schedule nerds may be interested that American offered 28 and 27 flights to Kansas City on July 9 and 10, with 373 and 372 flights to its Miami hub on the same two days. During the semifinals, American has scheduled 931 and 934 flights to its Dallas/Fort Worth hub on July 12 and 13, not to mention 47 and 43 flights to Delta’s Atlanta hub on July 13 and 14. It will also have 268 and 214 flights to the New York area, site of the final match, on July 17 and 18
Also, throughout the tournament, American successfully completed 16 surprise gate events for customers traveling on select flights between games with decorations, special announcements and giveaways as passengers boarded. The giveaways, extended to more than 2,600 passengers, took place on departing flights from every host city across North America, including Guadalajara, Vancouver, Monterrey, Mexico City, and Toronto as well as the U.S. cities.
American is operating a special livery aircraft that at times has flown specifically on flights to games. It has also made FOX One TV, which broadcasts games, available on its inflight streaming service.
Meanwhile, United said it saw a nearly 20% increase in bookings in aggregate to the North American cities hosting large international soccer matches from Thursday, June 11 to Sunday, June 27. United hubs in Houston and Chicago both provide direct flights to all host cities. “Fans from around the world are gearing up for an exciting summer to come together and cheer on their national team,” United said in a press statement.
