U.S. Airlines’ Customers’ Top Travel Destinations — by StatSocial

Jun 12, 2019 | Insights

StatSocial analyzed the most loyal customers of America’s largest airlines and identified which travel destinations they are most likely to visit, relative to other air travelers. Of course, these lists do favor many of each airline’s hub cities, but this is nonetheless another example of the predictive power of social media engagement data. Click here to download the PDF version of this report.

With air travel — much as with real estate — location counts for just about everything. It’s likely for the best that you don’t contemplate that statement too hard.

For this entry, we sorted through the customer data for the United States’ major airlines; from there, we calculated the top five most prominent (over-indexed) travel destinations among each.

What We Know, and What We Do

StatSocial’s affinity datasets are culled from the individual profiles of over 1.2 billion social media users. Our analysis considers over 80,000 unique attributes. As a result, we provide an in-depth breakdown of things such as an audience’s passions, media preferences, behaviors, favorite influencers, personality traits, Digital Tribes, and — in this instance — travel destinations.

Leaving On a Jet Plane…

The calculations outlined below were made using the average American social consumer as our baseline.

The below chart provides an at-a-glance summary. Beneath it, we’ll get a little deeper into things.

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American Airlines is one of the largest airlines in the world. Their planes — of which they have more than any other airline on the planet — take-off from airports in over 50 countries, around 6,700 times a day.

Dallas, Texas

The third biggest city, in the nation’s second largest state, also so happens to be where American Airlines is headquartered. We say that knowing that coincidence is likely not the only reason for the region’s prominence here.

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is the fourth busiest airport in the United States, in part because it is American’s largest hub. The airline’s most avid travelers head to Dallas to a degree exceeding the average United States audience member by 7.18 times.

Miami, Florida

Florida’s cultural and financial capital finds itself as the second most highly indexed destination among American’s flyers. The great City of Miami finds regular visitors among the airline’s customers to a degree exceeding our baseline by 4.48 times.

Washington, D.C.

Our nation’s capital is the third most highly indexed destination found here. American’s most loyal customers make their way to D.C. to a degree that exceeds the U.S. average by 3.78 times.

Austin, Texas

Texas’ capital — a town the likes of which you could only find in the U.S. — is American’s fourth most over-indexed destination. It finds favor among these travelers to a degree exceeding the baseline by 3.46 times.

Boston, Massachusetts

The American Airlines faithful make their dreams of Beantown a reality to a degree that exceeds the average U.S. social media audience by three times.

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From its humble beginnings in the cropdusting biz, in 1924, Delta Airlines has come some way. As of this writing, it is the most valuable airline in the world (in terms of assets and market cap).

Atlanta, Georgia

This airline’s home city is the most highly-indexed among their most loyal customers. This statistic would be noteworthy, whatever the case, but Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest in the world. This result is all the more dramatic, still, when you consider that those who make Atlanta a routine destination can be found among this group to a degree exceeding the baseline by 8.88 times.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Mini-Apple, famously keeps it cool in the wintertime but that does nothing to deter those travelers who choose Delta. The airline’s customers visit Minneapolis with a frequency greater than the average American air traveler by 7.35 times.

Seattle, Washington

The Space Needle’s home greets Delta’s flyers to an extent that exceeds the baseline by 3.41 times.

San Francisco, California

You won’t find many who will raise a fuss when confronted with the declaration that San Francisco is one of America’s prettiest cities. It seems you’ll find even fewer among the group being analyzed here, as Delta’s customers travel to The Golden City to a degree that exceeds the baseline by 2.91 times.

Los Angeles, California

“This is the city: Los Angeles, California. My name’s Friday. I carry a badge.”

An ancient pop culture reference will have to do, as there’s not much else to say regarding this great town. While many are known to make their way to the City of Angels, day in and day out, Delta’s travelers do so to a degree exceeding our baseline by 2.11 times.

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This New York based airline is the baby of the bunch here, having been founded in 1998 (and having first taken to the skies in 2000). This comparably youthful airline has managed to do just fine for themselves during that time, with last year’s ‘Fortune 500’ ranking the company at 402.

Boston, Massachusetts

With jetBlue providing nearly hourly shuttle service out of New York’s La Guardia Airport — as well as regular service out of D.C. — heading up to Boston each day, this result is not entirely surprising. Still, the airline’s most loyal customers make their way “to the banks of the River Charles” to a degree exceeding the baseline by 9.33 times.

New York, New York

What goes north, for our purposes here, must come south. No doubt, the above referenced shuttle service has contributed to StatSocial’s home city being so highly indexed. The airline’s customers arrive in Gotham with a regularity exceeding what you’d find among the average American audience by 5.39 times.

Orlando, Florida

Another’s of our nation’s most popular travel destinations finds particular favor here. jetBlue’s most loyal customers fly to Orlando to an extent that exceeds the baseline by 4.73 times.

Miami, Florida

The airline’s loyal travelers arrive in Miami with a frequency that exceeds the average American air traveler by 2.87 times.

Los Angeles, California

Sure, you must have heard of L.A. It’s where all the movie stars come from, among other things. It would seem that jetBlue’s customers fly there — whether they’ve ever heard of it or not — to a degree that exceeds our baseline by 2.62 times.

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This once regional airline first threw its hat into the skies in the late-60s. Southwest carries the most domestic passengers of any airline in the United States.