Transatlantic Insights

We're currently gathering data for our model. For today's post, we analyzed flight fare data for a 1-week round trip (2025-02-05 to 2025-02-12) and visualized it using kepler.gl. Here’s what we found:

For departures from Europe, these are the minimum flight fares from major airports. If you're planning a trip to North America during these dates, it might be significantly cheaper to first fly to another European airport before heading to North America. While this approach requires booking three separate round-trip tickets, the total cost will often be cheaper than a single direct route.

The same principle applies when departing from North America. For example, if you want to fly from Salt Lake City to Europe directly, the fare would likely be at least $600-$900. However, if you fly to Denver first, round-trip tickets to Europe can be found for just $300-$400. Although you'll need to pay for the additional flight to Denver, which might cost around $100 if booked in advance, it can still save you money overall.

Next, we flipped the data to focus on fares for incoming flights, rather than departures:

By comparing the departure and arrival fare graphs, you can identify which airports offer the cheapest flights between Europe and North America.

The next step would be to use a tool like Kiwi to look for round-trip fares. Start by entering the cheapest European airports near you in the "From" field and the cheapest North American airports near your destination in the "To" field. Once you’ve identified the top 5-10 options, you can check budget airline fares to/from these intermediary airports to finalize the best combination.

However, this process can be time-consuming, especially if you're considering several different dates. That’s why we’re developing our search engine, powered by a mix of AI and algorithms, to automatically identify intermediary airports and conduct the necessary searches for all three legs of the trip, saving you time and effort.