Fifth successive month of global airline capacity growth
10.10.11
The world’s airlines have scheduled 5% more capacity on 3% more flights this month, the fifth successive month of growth, OAG reports. Some 87,176 more scheduled flights will operate this month than last year, offering 16.6 million more seats. There will be 2.65 million flights this month, with a total capacity of 337.3 million seats.
The balance between a higher overall increase in capacity (5%) compared to frequency (3%) reflects the growing number of carriers replacing older aircraft with larger, ‘next generation’ aircraft that can carry more passengers.
While the top three airport rankings by capacity have not changed from 2010 (Atlanta, Beijing, Heathrow), Tokyo Haneda has overtaken Chicago O’Hare as the fourth largest hub airport in the world, supported by its Terminal 3 operations which opened one year ago this month.
A spokesman for OAG said: ‘While profit forecasts for the industry remain weak, these figures indicate that airlines remain confident that passenger demand will continue to buck the gloomy economic outlook.’
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