Global airline capacity for September shows positive growth for the second consecutive month, according to OAG, the leading aviation data business.
Airlines scheduled 296.9 million seats, a rise of 1.4% (4,130,744 more seats) over September 2008 levels, OAG says.
Says David Beckerman, vice president of OAG Market Intelligence: "As the summer season winds down, the steady upward trend we have seen since May is continuing. After 11 straight months of capacity cutbacks, these figures indicate a growing confidence within the industry that demand for air travel is starting to pick up."
[My comment: Fare sales have something to do with that, but there is no doubt that more people are feeling the urge or need to travel again. There has been a definite uptick in business travel demand.]
OAG says that airlines scheduled 2.4 million flights, down 0.6% (14,321 fewer flights) compared with Sept. 2008. Last month, total flights were down 2% and capacity was up 0.2%.
The month-by-month trend since the start of the economic downturn can be seen here.
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By JOE SHARKEY
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