Increase after year of decline
Global airline capacity increased marginally in August, OAG, an aviation data company, said.
Airlines offered 314.2m seats this month, a 0.2% rise on the figure for August 2008.
But the company said frequency levels were still down compared with 2008.
Airlines had 2.53m flights on offer in August, 52,043 (2%) fewer than the same month last year.
But this is a smaller decline compared to July when year on year frequency was down 3% and capacity down 1%.
David Beckerman, vp for OAG Market Intelligence, said: "After a year of capacity cutbacks, it is encouraging to see positive numbers in the year on year comparisons.
"August is traditionally one of the busiest months for air travel, and it will be interesting to see if the steady upward trend we have seen since May continues once the summer vacation season draws to a close."
www.oagaviation.com