Certain Hubs Reflect Positive Growth Over 30%; Others Report Negative Growth Over 20%

Global airline capacity for November 2009 shows positive growth compared to November 2008, reports OAG, (www.oagaviation.com), the world’s leading aviation data business with its monthly report on trends in the supply of airline flights and seats. The world’s airlines have 285.4 million seats available this month, a rise of 3% over November 2008 levels. Global frequencies are up 1% compared to November 2008, with a total of 2.3 million flights for November 2009, despite an average North American frequency decline of 2%.

David Beckerman, vice president OAG Market Intelligence, said, “We continue to see growth in global capacity, even with major increases and decreases in hub frequency and capacity compared to a year ago, which would tend to indicate a shift in how travelers are being routed around the globe.”

Worldwide, frequencies and capacity in the low cost sector are both up by 8%, compared to a year ago, accounting for 424,458 flights (18%) and 62.6 million seats (22%).

Analysis of all hubs reveals that frequency and capacity to and from certain hubs reflects positive growth of more than 30%, with some showing reduced traffic and a negative growth of more than 20%. Leading the growth is Rio de Janerio (SDU) with a 39% increase in flight activity and 49% increase in seat capacity. Kiev on the other hand, shows a large reduction in flights (30% less) and in seats (28% less).

The transatlantic market between North America and Western Europe shows an 8% decrease in capacity year on year, representing 434,467 fewer seats. Frequencies are down 10%, representing 2,144 fewer transatlantic flights for the month. Within Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East there have been a strong increase in frequencies.

The month-by-month trend since the start of the economic downturn can be seen in chart format below, or click here

The world’s airlines have 285.4 million seats available this month, a rise of 3% over November 2008 levels.

Frequencies are also up compared to November 2008. The world’s airlines have scheduled a total of 2.3 million flights for November 2009, up by 1% compared with the same month last year.

Low Cost

Analysis by Region
Flights to and from Europe show a slight growth compared to November 2008, with 1% more flights and seats. Flight schedules within the region however are declining year on year, with 4% (20,264) fewer flights and 1% (645,115) fewer seats.

Flight volumes within North America are showing a 2% drop in frequencies (16,103 fewer flights) and in seat capacity showing a 3% decline (2,091,225 fewer seats) while international frequencies and capacity to and from the region show declines of 4% and 3% respectively. 

Hubs
Analysis of all hubs reveals that frequency and capacity to/from certain hubs reflects positive growth of more than 30%, with some showing reduced traffic and a negative growth of more than 20%.

Leading the growth is Rio de Janerio (SDU) with a 39% increase in flight activity and 49% increase in seat capacity. Kiev (KBP) on the other hand shows a big reduction in flights and seats. KBP will have 2,215 fewer flights compared to November 2008 and 224,325 less seats compared to the same period last year, resulting in a 30% and 28% negative growth respectively.

The following chart depicts the growth trends for some of the hubs.

Latin America continues to experience growth in air service within the region, with a rise of 5% in frequencies (9,885 more flights) and 13% in capacity (2.3 million more seats).  Operations to and from Central and South America show a very small decline of 0.1% for both frequency and capacity year on year. The low cost sector in this region is especially seeing healthy capacity growth of 46% within the region and 40% to and from Central and South America.  

Figures for Asia show a contrast between services within, and to/from the region. Intra-regionally, frequencies are up by 7% (37,584 more flights) compared with November 2008, with a rise of 8% in capacity (6.3 million more seats).  For services to and from the region, there is a marginal increase of 1% in capacity and flights. 

The Middle East region continues to enjoy an upward trend. Flights and capacity for travel to and from the region are up by 10% and 9% respectively, representing a frequency of 45,981 and seat capacity of 9.9 million. The number of flights and seats offered within the region are up by 19% (6,367 more flights) and 23% (1.2 million more seats) respectively.

Africa is also is experiencing good growth.  Flights to and from Africa are up by 11% with a 13% rise in capacity.  Air service within the region is showing an upturn year on year with a 4% rise in the volume of flights and 7% more seat capacity.

Analysis by Major Routes
The OAG figures between Western Europe and the Middle East, and between Western Europe and Africa, shows an upturn in capacity of 9% (246,101 more seats) and 11% (437,469 more seats) respectively compared with November 2008. 

The transatlantic market between North America and Western Europe shows an 8% decrease in capacity year on year, representing 434,467 fewer seats.  Frequencies are down 10%, representing 2,144 fewer transatlantic flights for the month.

Services between North America and Central/South America are down compared to a year ago, with 1% less flights and 1% capacity between the regions.

Airlines operating transpacific routes are scheduled to offer 9,315 fewer seats this month compared to a year ago, while carriers flying between Western Europe and Asia are cutting capacity by 4% (165,238 fewer seats).

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OAG FACTS enables you to see trends at-a-glance. An easy to use tool providing the latest data on current airline activity around the world. Updated monthly, it uses interactive graphs to display a visual trend of the performance of a specific airport, route, country or region from 2001 - 2009.