woman walking on pathway while strolling luggage

Global Airline Seat Capacity Is Getting Really Close To Pre-Pandemic Level

Each month OAG produces an Airline Frequency and Capacity Trend Statistics Report, flight data included is sourced via Schedules Analyzer. The report contains key facts and figures including Seats by Region, Top 20 Country Pairs, Top 20 Airlines, and Top 20 Airports, plus additional information regarding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the recovery of the travel industry. The data below is for the month of June 2022.

SEATS BY REGION

RegionSeats in Jun-22Change v Jun-19Change v May-22
Africa : Central/Western Africa2,965,97521.8%-0.6%
Africa : Eastern Africa2,748,252-11.0%4.1%
Africa : North Africa4,451,315-10.5%3.3%
Africa : Southern Africa2,448,652-26.3%-2.4%
Asia : Central Asia1,856,75912.9%2.1%
Asia : North East Asia82,645,266-20.2%27.6%
Asia : South Asia20,423,4830.0%-1.5%
Asia : South East Asia29,021,515-33.4%1.1%
Europe : Eastern/Central Europe17,174,461-20.0%16.3%
Europe : Western Europe98,958,178-11.7%5.1%
Latin America : Caribbean3,409,644-14.4%-0.6%
Latin America : Central America10,492,4865.0%-1.5%
Latin America : Lower South America12,556,740-12.4%-4.2%
Latin America : Upper South America7,585,3874.5%-1.8%
Middle East18,046,303-17.3%-0.7%
North America98,994,173-8.4%2.3%
Southwest Pacific9,528,741-17.7%0.5%
Global423,307,330-14.2%6.7%

KEY POINTS

  • This month, global capacity is expected to reach 423.3m, just 14.2% behind June 2019
  • This represents a continued steady increase month on month, with capacity now 6.7% higher than in May 2022, which equates to an increase of 26 million seats.
  • This is largely being driven by capacity in North East Asia (primarily China) where there is a gradual reopening after ongoing lockdowns in Shanghai and other cities.
  • Europe continues to see strong growth this month and Western Europe in particular is just 11.7% behind 2019.
  • There are still just 4 regions which have seen capacity exceed 2019 levels – Central/Western Africa, Central Asia, Central America and Upper South America.

TOP TWENTY COUNTRY PAIRS

Country PairsSeats in Jun-22Change v Jun-19Change v May-22
Spain-United Kingdom4,756,526-9.6%4.9%
Mexico-USA3,770,21518.0%2.7%
Germany-Spain2,886,149-11.8%5.1%
Canada-USA2,695,288-16.7%17.0%
Germany-Turkey2,154,33311.6%21.7%
United Kingdom-USA2,023,208-17.4%5.3%
UAE -India1,789,2102.0%-1.9%
Spain-Italy1,660,399-3.9%7.2%
United Kingdom-Greece1,608,52418.3%28.3%
Spain-France1,542,976-2.8%1.2%
United Kingdom-Italy1,534,800-14.5%0.9%
Germany-Italy1,454,556-25.1%2.3%
Germany-Greece1,412,04019.7%19.8%
France-Italy1,290,103-2.0%3.7%
United Kingdom-Ireland1,269,110-6.6%-3.1%
France-United Kingdom1,191,685-16.0%8.8%
United Kingdom-Turkey1,171,51726.2%16.0%
Germany-United Kingdom1,110,201-27.8%-0.8%
Germany-USA1,048,927-15.9%0.8%
Russian Federation-Turkey1,039,822-23.8%48.2%

KEY POINTS

  • Spain-UK remains the largest country pair in the world, with 4.7m seats in June. Month on month growth has slowed to 4.9% this month.
  • Just 6 of the Top 20 largest country pairs are sitting above June 2019 levels, with Greece occupying two of those places with strong capacity growth to Germany and the UK continuing as traveller confidence returns.
  • UK-Turkey capacity is also seeing Turkey apppears in 3 places in the Top 20, with strong growth across many of it’s source leisure markets.
  • Again this month the Top 20 country pairs are dominated by European country pairs, with 15 of the 20 operating from countries
    within Europe.