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Global airline capacity overview

03/10/2022| 6:44:44 PM| 中文

Week on week an additional 7.1 million seats were added for April and 9.1 million more for May making this one of the most positive weeks for forward capacity growth in a long time.

These are challenging times for the world and there are more important humanitarian issues to worry about this week that extend far beyond aviation. We know that the airline industry will do everything it can at every level, from the provision of free seats to the movement of aid when safe and practical. I’m sure OAG joins whole airline community to pray for the thousands of people affected and for a rapid resolution of this terrible situation. 

This week’s blog provides a high-level view of global capacity changes this week; more insights will follow as we understand the effect of sanctions across the industry.

Global capacity continues to hold above 82 million seats this week and this is now the fourth consecutive week when the industry has supplied more than eighty million suggesting a solid platform for future capacity growth over the summer season. In the same week in 2019 there were some 106 million seats on sale, so capacity remains some 23% below what was once considered the normal level of capacity; things are of course improving and more country markets are open as travel restrictions ease in destinations such as Singapore, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates. 

Capacity continues to be added by airlines in many markets for the next three months suggesting that the second quarter of the year will be very strong. Week on week an additional 7.1 million seats were added for April and 9.1 million more for May making this one of the most positive weeks for forward capacity growth in a long time. Of course, demand remains the crucial measurement for airlines around the world and the increasing price of oil could soften demand in the coming months, we can but hope that the pent-up demand will not be impacted by any increases in fares.

Chart 1 - Weekly Capacity Changes by Region, Forward Quarter

Source: OAG

Whilst capacity at a global level is pretty similar to last week there is as always, some movement in the regional numbers although even here, we are seeing increasing stability. Lower South America has reported growth of some 7% week on week as the Brazilian market bounces back from some recent declines and the Southwest Pacific continues its recovery with New Zealand opening for more international flights which will leave only China and Japan as markets with significant travel restrictions still in place. Two regional markets show declines in weekly capacity: North East Asia (-4.5%) and Eastern/Central Europe (-2.6%).

Drawing comparison against the March 2019 weekly capacity every regional market in the world now has at least 50% of capacity back up and running, South East Asia and the Southwest Pacific both of which continue to ease restrictions and will improve their relative performance in the next few weeks. 

Table 1 – Scheduled Airline Capacity by Region

Source: OAG

The global top twenty country markets remain unchanged as they have done for a few weeks now but as always there is some movement within the chart. Brazil for instance jumps above the United Kingdom on the back of an 11% increase in weekly seats.

Table 2 - Scheduled Capacity, Top 20 Country Markets

Source: OAG

TAGS: OAG | capacity
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