28 April 2009

Airline capacity decline continues

Airlines continued to schedule fewer flights in April for the ninth successive month, new figures show.

Only the Middle East and Africa to a lesser degree are showing any signs of growth while there are sharp declines in Europe and North America.

The UK showed a steep decline with a reduction in domestic flights and capacity of 13% and 14% respectively, while international operations were down by 10% (11,237 fewer flights) and 9% (1.6 million fewer seats).

The world's airlines scheduled 6% fewer flights for April compared with the same month last year, with a 3% drop in seat capacity, according to aviation data firm OAG.

This is the ninth successive month of declines and represents a reduction of more than 136,000 flights and nine million seats year on year.

The total number of flights scheduled to operate worldwide this month is 2.34 million, offering 287.3 million seats.

Flight schedules within Europe are down by 8% compared to April 2008, with 50,854 fewer flights. Capacity within the region is down by 7% with 4.7 million fewer seats on offer.

Figures for North America show downturns of 9% in domestic frequencies and 8% in capacity, with a 6% drop for flights and capacity to and from the region.

Flights within Central/South America had 5% less capacity, while Asia was relatively stable with a 1% drop in capacity to and from the region and a rise of 3% in the number of seats offered on services within the region.

Flights and capacity for travel within the Middle East were up by 12% and 11% respectively, while the number of flights and seats offered to and from the region are showing growth year on year of 15% for April 2009. This represents an additional 5,701 flights and 1.2 million seats on offer.

Flights to and from Africa are up by 6% with a 7% increase in capacity, although flights within the region are down by 1.6% with virtually no change in capacity.

OAG market intelligence vice-president David Beckerman said: "The OAG figures for April reveal some sharp contrasts.

"The Middle East and Africa, and Asia to a lesser degree, are showing growth, while Europe and North America continue to show steep declines.

"These contrasts can be seen also on the key long-haul routes, where transatlantic and transpacific services are down significantly compared with this time last year, while services between Western Europe and the Middle East have increased by 16%."