21 May 2009

Airline capacity down for tenth successive month

The world's airlines have scheduled five per cent (127,000) fewer flights for May compared with the same month last year.

This represents a 2.7% drop in seat capacity of 8.3 million fewer seats, according to latest OAG figures.

It is the tenth successive month of declines in airline capacity. But the rate of decline is showing signs of flattening, after a dramatic downturn in February.

Global capacity reductions have remained at three per cent for the last three months compared to figures for the same months in 2008.

The year-on-year global frequency and capacity figures were down last month by 5.5% and 3% respectively.

The total number of flights scheduled to operate worldwide this month is 2.43 million, offering 298.6 million seats worldwide.

This comes despite fears over the potential impact of swine flu.

OAG Market Intelligence vice-president David Beckerman said: "The airline community is understandably cautious, especially with memories of the devastating effect which the SARS virus had on the airline industry in 2003.

"So far, our figures are not showing a dramatic downturn in seat capacity; however that's not to say that airlines and passengers are complacent - far from it.

"We will need to wait a while until we can see some clear trends and gain some perspective on the situation."

The only region with worsening seat capacity figures compared to last month is Asia Pacific, although the difference is slight, according to OAG.