Global airline capacity for December 2009 shows positive growth compared to December 2008, reports OAG, the world's leading aviation data business with its monthly report on trends in the supply of airline flights and seats. There are 294.8 million seats available this month, a rise of 4% over December 2008 levels. Global frequencies are up 1% compared to December 2008, with a total of 2.4 million flights scheduled for December 2009, despite an average North American frequency decline of 2%. Worldwide, frequencies and capacity in the low cost sector are both up by 10% compared to a year ago, accounting for 444,539 flights (18%) and 65.6 million seats (22%). (Source: Travel Industry Wire)

Analysis of major routes reveals that frequency and capacity on certain routes reflect positive growth, while others are showing strong decreases. Leading the growth is traffic between Western Europe and Africa with an increase of 19% (3,883) in the number of flights and an 18% increase in seats (710,129). However, between Western Europe and North America there is a 9% decrease in the number of flights and an 8% decrease in the number of seats.

The chart below shows the month on month trend in the airline business since the beginning of the economical crisis.



In general, this seems to confirm two important elements. First, on global level, the economical crisis seems to have bottomed out and recovery is within reach. Secondly, the weight and the importance of the low cost airlines cannot be underestimated. Low cost is not a temporary phenomenon, it might very well be the future of the industry. 
 

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Comment

smaller | bigger

Add Comment Preview