Global Airline Capacity Up in December as Demand Starts to Recover

There are 4 percent more airline seats available globally this December than there were in December, 2008, which is an indication that a slow recovery in air travel demand might be underway. There is no similar indication that airline revenues may be improving.

Here's the detailed report from OAG, the world’s leading aviation data supplier, which issues a 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%).


John Weber, senior vice president OAG Aviation, said, “Global capacity continues to rise, boosted by worldwide increases in both frequency and capacity in the low cost sector, which would tend to show us that travelers are choosing to fly airlines that offer more economical choices. This increase in December 2009 capacity recovers the global pull-down of minus 10 million scheduled seats in 2008 ..."

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