Global airline capacity continues to stabilise

Cutbacks are starting to stabilise with just over 315 million seats on offer this month, a drop of just one percent over July 2008 levels, reports OAG.

The world’s airlines have scheduled a total of 2.55 million flights for July 2009, down by three percent compared with the same month last year, with a drop in capacity of 3.3 million fewer seats on offer to travellers around the globe. Last month, the year-on-year global frequency and capacity figures were down by four percent and two percent respectively.

David Beckerman, vice president OAG Market Intelligence, said, “Airline capacity is often cited as a barometer of economic confidence. Carriers adjust their fleet and services in anticipation of market demand for air travel, which is vulnerable to corporate cost management and to disposable income of leisure travellers at times of financial uncertainty.”

“The OAG figures, which amalgamate the planned operations for airlines worldwide, show a clear and very welcome upward trend from the dramatic declines we have seen in recent months.  We can only wait and see if this outlook bears financial fruit in actual passenger numbers and airline load factors.”