When long-haul twinjet flights are considered, the US’s average seats per flight in the all-important July and August is 270. This finding is based on an examination of every scheduled service using Cirium Diio data. With 480 seats, French bee will have more seats per flight than any other twin-engined type or variant.
Year Founded
2016
CEO
Marc Rochet
French bee will temporarily deploy the 480-seat Airbus A350-1000 between Paris Orly and Newark, the US’s leading airport for European destinations. Significantly, it will be the New Jersey airport’s most seats per flight on any aircraft (whether twinjet or quadjet) to date.
French bee’s A350-1000s Are Used To Newark
Photo: Eric Salard | Flickr
The carrier has flown to Newark since June 2020. Since then, the budget carrier has nearly entirely deployed its 411-seat A350-900, its lowest-capacity equipment. However, on April 10, 2025, the airline’s very high-capacity 480-seat A350-1000 materialized. The A350-1000 is due to be flown to Newark until September 14. From July, the variant runs three times weekly. The carrier’s remaining six weekly peak summer services are on its A350-900s.
According to ch-aviation, French bee two A350-1000s, each with 440 seats in economy and 40 in premium economy. They have very low seat-mile costs, with this and the huge volume helping to offset the lack of yields from no business class. It must continually fill them to have any chance of working, perhaps a tall order given that it relies on point-to-point traffic. However, the US Department of Transportation data shows it filled 85% of seats during last year’s peak summer, although I do not know at what fares and how much it generated in ancillary add-ons beyond the basic fare.
A350-1000 Days: July/August
Paris Orly To Newark; Local Times
Newark To Paris Orly; Local Times
Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays
18:50-21:00
23:00-12:15+1
What Is The Next-Largest Twinjet In The US?
Photo: Eric Salard | Flickr
Analyzing every scheduled passenger flight in July and August shows that Air France’s 472-seat Boeing 777-300ERs come next. The carrier has 12 aircraft with that number of seats, each of which has 14 seats in business, 28 in premium economy, and 430 in economy. It is its low-premium, high-economy version.
While many of the destinations to which the configuration is flown revolve around leisure or visiting friends and relatives demand in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean, they’re also flown elsewhere, including to the US. On June 16, Air France flew the 472-seater to New York JFK for the first time. To make it even more unusual, it leaves JFK at 01:40, which is the Big Apple airport’s last Europe-bound departure of the night.
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They involve multiple carriers, including those from North America.
Newark’s Flights With 350+ Seat Aircraft: July & August
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
Keeping with July and August and extending the examination to quadjets indicates the following flights have 350 seats or more. One quadjet is present: Lufthansa’s 364-seat 747-8i on the Star Alliance link from Frankfurt. While this variant has seven fewer seats than the carrier’s 747-400s, they are far more premium. It has eight seats in first, 80 in business, 32 in premium economy, and 244 in economy.
Of note are United Airlines’ so-called ‘domestic’ 777-200s, which were the original Triple 7 variant. They are non-Extended Range machines. United has equipped its aircraft with 364 seats in an economy-heavy, premium-light configuration. They are deployed on high-capacity, short- to medium-range leisure and hub-to-hub routes, including from Newark to the airline’s two West Coast hubs.
Seats Per Flight: July/August
Newark To….
Airline
Equipment
480
Paris Orly
French bee
A350-1000
414
Paris Orly
French bee
A350-900
364
Los Angeles
United
Non-ER 777-200
364
San Francisco
United
Non-ER 777-200
364
Frankfurt
Lufthansa
747-8i
350
Dubai
United
777-300ER
350
Frankfurt
United
777-300ER
350
Rome
United
777-300ER
350
San Francisco
United
777-300ER
