Which Region Has Seen The Highest Change In Flight Capacity Since Last Year?

summary

The number of seats offered by airlines around the world has increased by more than 7% compared to last year.
The United States and China offer the largest number of seats due to increased activity of low-cost carriers and the use of wide-body jets.
The number of scheduled flights decreased by 5% compared to 2019.

Passenger capacity increased significantly in various regions of the world compared to 2019, as the airline industry approaches pre-pandemic numbers on average globally. However, the current number of scheduled flights is still 5% below previous levels. What does this mean?

Increased capacity

The airline industry has performed incredibly well in recent years as it bounced back from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, regions have recovered at different paces and the industry has seen significant changes in airline business models and strategies. This not only kept the airline afloat, but ultimately increased its average capacity.According to data from aviation analytics providers OAGcapacity per scheduled flight worldwide in the second quarter of this year increased by 4.1% compared to the second quarter of 2019 and by 7.7% compared to the second quarter of 2023.

Data for Q2 2024 shows that only two regions will see a decrease in production capacity compared to Q2 2023. Latin America (down 1.1%) and Central/West Africa (down 15.1%).

Photo: Oleksii Halutva | Shutterstock

However, when compared to data from Q2 2023, the three highest increases in capacity in Q2 2024 were in Latin America (Upper South America) with an increase of 15.7%, Northeast Asia with an increase of 11.5%, and South It was Asia. , an increase of 10%. Despite the increase in production capacity in these regions, it is notable that when considering the top 10 countries with capacity growth, not a single Latin American country made the list. To do.

top 10 countries

Different factors will increase the capacity provided for each country. In Spain, capacity increased by 18% compared to the second quarter of 2019 due to increased activity of low-cost carriers, and in China capacity increased by 13% due to increased use of wide-body aircraft on domestic routes. Although U.S. regional flights are down 36% compared to pre-pandemic levels, capacity is still up 14% due to increased LCC activity.

Photo: Abid Habib | Simple Flight

It is clear from the data that the largest current capacity is in the US and Chinese markets. Correlating with this data, the US Big Four (American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines) are among the top 10 airlines in the world with the largest capacity, along with China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines. You can see that it’s included. Air China accounts for most of the supply capacity in the Chinese market.

There are still few regular flights.

Despite significant increases in transport capacity around the world, the number of scheduled flights is down 5% compared to 2019, data shows. The main culprit can be attributed to the pandemic itself, as airlines have exhausted all viable options to survive during the height of the pandemic.

according to CNN, The pandemic has caused 64 airlines around the world to go bankrupt. It could be argued that new airlines were being formed during this period, but since these airlines were emerging airlines, they were developing networks comparable to the 64 existing airlines to make up for lost flights. It must be kept in mind that it takes time to build. .

Which Latin American airlines have ceased operations since 2020?

Seven Latin American airlines have suspended operations from 2020 to 2023.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flight

Other factors that may have contributed to the decline in scheduled frequency include airlines reducing the size of their fleets and networks and working with other airlines to appropriate capacity available on specific routes. As a result, the number of flights has decreased.

Geopolitical factors play a considerable role in this regard. That is, European airlines canceling flights to Russia because of the Ukraine conflict, and vice versa. However, the Russian airspace ban has also forced several European and American airlines to reduce or reduce flights to destinations within Asia due to operational challenges.