As the IAGA AGM commences today, there is an increasing feeling that the global market is finally about to recover, although the short-term outlook through to the year-end remains very soft. Things are certainly looking brighter into 2022, if you can hang on that long! Weekly capacity however remains becalmed, with global capacity at 78.6 million, a 0.5% reduction on last week as the usual combination of ‘ups and downs’ across regional markets leave the industry still 30% below 2019 levels.
Part of the current positivity comes from actual airline capacity for the next three months increasing, compared to the previous week, as the table below shows. As always it’s necessary to look at the data in more detail – what appears to be a significant increase in airline capacity across North East Asia actually reflects Chinese airlines finally filing their full schedules for the rest of the year. The reality is that major regional markets continue to see capacity being stripped out to the year-end; Western Europe lost 3.2 million seats, the South West Pacific 2.2 million seats, and South East Asia 2.1 million seats.Read more
