New York to West Palm Beach

Between New York and West Palm Beach, 3.0 million passengers flew nonstop in 2025, on 23 thousand flights of about 1,035 miles and 2.4 hours in the air. The average passenger accounted for about 166 kg of CO2 from the fuel burned, from 129 kg on Frontier Airlines to 195 kg on American Airlines.

166 kgCO2 per passenger, average
1,035 milesabout 2.4 hours in the air
3.0 millionpassengers in 2025
81%of seats filled

CO2 per passenger, airline by airline

Kilograms of CO2 per passenger, one way, 2025. Fuel burned only. Less is better.

New York to West Palm Beach by airline, 2025

Airline	Share of passengers	Flights (thousands)	Main aircraft	Seats per flight	Seats filled	kg CO2 per passenger
JetBlue	43%	10.3	Airbus A320-200, Airbus A220-300	159	80%	177
United Airlines	24%	5.2	Boeing 737 MAX 8, Boeing 737-900ER	172	82%	149
Delta Air Lines	21%	4.4	Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737-900ER	172	84%	162
Southwest Airlines	6%	1.4	Boeing 737-700, Boeing 737-800	160	77%	165
American Airlines	3%	0.7	Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737 MAX 8	172	70%	195
Frontier Airlines	2%	0.3	Airbus A320neo, Airbus A321neo	213	76%	129

What explains the differences

It's number 24 of the 100 busiest city pairs by passengers, and number 60 for the lowest CO2 per mile flown (0.16 kg per passenger-mile, number 1 being the lowest). A typical route of 1,035 miles in this set comes out at about 156 kg, so this one is 6.7% above it.

The flights use more than one pair of airports: EWR to PBI (31%), LGA to PBI (27%), JFK to PBI (18%). The figures here cover all of them.

The airlines on this route differ by 51% per passenger. Frontier Airlines burned 2,127 gallons per flight and 161 passengers on each, and American Airlines 2,413 gallons and 121 passengers. Fuel burned per flight explains about 31% of the gap and the number of passengers on each flight the other 69%. Frontier Airlines flew 76% full here against 70% for American Airlines, flying mostly Airbus A320neo against Boeing 737-800.

For comparison, the EPA default factor for a flight of this length (0.129 kg per passenger-mile) would give 134 kg. The EPA figure is a national average for flights of that length. The measured figure for this route is 25% higher.

2019 compared with 2025

In 2019 the route carried 2.6 million passengers on 20 thousand flights. In 2025 it carried 3.0 million, up 19%, on 23 thousand flights, up 12%. The average flight had 153 seats then and 165 now, and 83% of them were filled against 81%.

CO2 per passenger was 173 kg in 2019 and 166 kg in 2025, down 3.9%. Fuel burned per flight was up 1.5% (2,239 gallons to 2,273) and passengers per flight were up 5.7% (126 to 133). The distance flown was about the same (1,035 miles then, 1,035 now).

JetBlue led in both years, with 49% of passengers in 2019 and 43% in 2025. Delta Air Lines gained the most share, 17% to 21%. JetBlue lost the most, 49% to 43%. American Airlines didn't have 1% of the passengers in 2019 and now carries 3%.

Airline by airline, Delta Air Lines went from 188 kg to 162 kg per passenger (147 seats per flight to 172, main aircraft Airbus A319 then and Boeing 737-800 now); JetBlue went from 173 kg to 177 kg per passenger (152 seats per flight to 159, main aircraft Airbus A320-200 in both years).

New York to West Palm Beach, 2019 and 2025

Measure	2019	2025
Passengers (thousands)	2,554	3,028
Flights (thousands)	20.2	22.7
Seats filled	83%	81%
Gallons of fuel per flight	2,239	2,273
kg CO2 per passenger	173	166

Kilograms of CO2 per passenger on the airlines that flew the route in both years. 2019 figures use that year's filings and estimated aircraft fuel rates, with type-average replacements for missing or outlying filings as described in the methodology. Less is better.

New York to West Palm Beach and back: time in the air

Flights from New York to West Palm Beach spent 149 minutes in the air on average in 2025, against 141 minutes from West Palm Beach to New York: 8 minutes longer, 6% more. That's the westbound direction, into the prevailing west-to-east winds, which at flight levels often blow at well over 50 miles an hour.

At this route's average burn of about 942 gallons per flight hour, those extra minutes cost about 127 gallons per flight, which is about 1.0 gallons or 9 kg of CO2 for each passenger on the slower direction. The route figure above averages both directions.

Time in the air by direction, 2025

Direction	Average minutes in the air	Flights
New York to West Palm Beach	148.8	11,380
West Palm Beach to New York	140.7	11,331

Fly or drive

Driving is about 1,211 miles by road, which we estimate as 1.17 times the straight-line distance. An average car emits about 360 kg of CO2 on the trip, at the EPA figure of 0.297 kg per vehicle-mile. Alone, that's 116% more than the 166 kg for a passenger on the flight.

With 3 people in the car, driving comes out lower per person than the flight (120 kg each, and 90 kg each for four). A larger SUV or pickup (0.394 kg per mile) would emit about 477 kg per vehicle.

CO2 per person, New York to West Palm Beach. Driving figures divide one car's emissions between the people in it. See flying vs driving for other trip lengths.

Flights are listed under the airline that operates them, so regional flying appears under the regional. How the CO2 and drive figures are worked out is in the methodology.

Routes with shared cities or nearby CO2 per mile

Airports on this route: Newark Liberty International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Airport and airline references

Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), T-100 traffic and Schedule T-2 fuel filings; US EPA transport emission factors. See the methodology.

See all routes, or how the airlines compare overall on the airline pages.