Asia leads the way in flight capacity growth
The Asia Pacific is leading growth in flight capacity worldwide, according to the latest figures from OAG.
Its report shows published seat capacity figures for July on flights within the Asia Pacific region will reach 99,044,360.
It also reveals a 6% rise in capacity year on year with an additional 5.5 million seats and an 11% increase in the number of flights operating within the region.
Meanwhile, capacity within the intra Europe and intra North America regions are 82.8 million and 81.8 million seats respectively.
Asia Pacific is also outperforming on frequencies and seat capacity, with 11% more flights and 9% more seats than in July 2010.
Globally, the world’s airlines have scheduled 2.76 million flights this month with a total capacity of 351.4 million seats, representing increases of 3% and 5% respectively on July 2010 figures, the same percentage increases as last month.
The growth is largely driven by increases in aircraft size. The average number of seats per flight is now 127 compared to 125 this time last year.
Domestic capacity in China grew by 5% year on year and maintains its status as the number two domestic market in the world (behind the US) and some way ahead of Brazil in third.
China’s international capacity has seen an even sharper increase with an additional 1.1 million seats compared to July 2010.
Delhi continues to be the fastest growing hub in the Asia Pacific region with frequencies up 20% and available seats increasing by 22% with Hanoi one stop below on the global table.
Year on year Hanoi has seen frequencies increase by 28% and capacity by 21% to 1.33 million seats.
A significant proportion of this capacity has come from Qatar Airways’ four times a week Doha to Hanoi service which operates via Bangkok.
“This steady growth, led largely by Asia, is encouraging for global trade and tourism which depends heavily on a buoyant aviation industry,†said Peter von Moltke, CEO of OAG’s parent UBM Aviation.
“The Northern hemisphere is entering the busy summer holiday period and any nervousness about some Eurozone countries doesn’t appear to be affecting airline expectations of passenger demand. Low cost and traditional carriers alike have scheduled around 5% more European capacity this month.â€
A more detailed review of the OAG report is available to download now at http://www.oagaviation.com/OAG-FACTS/2011/July-Executive-Summary.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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