Global airline capacity is down to 26.6 million seats this
week despite capacity increases by carriers, particularly in Northeast Asia and
Western Europe, according to analysis by OAG.
While about 270 airlines have added some level of capacity
back this week – about 3.9 million seats in total – more than 300 have cut
capacity by a total of 5.6 million seats, including 1.8 million seats of US
domestic capacity, OAG reported. More than a million of those came from
Southwest Airlines alone, which for the past few weeks had been the airline
with the largest capacity in the world but this week has been passed by China
Eastern. This time last year, global airline capacity was about 109 million
seats for the week.
Capacity growth this week is largest in Northeast Asia, up 6
per cent compared with last week as China has eased some travel restrictions,
OAG indicated. Western Europe capacity is up about 4 per cent week over week
with Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom all adding back some capacity,
though Western Europe's total capacity remains at about a tenth of what it was
in January. Vietnam, Oman and Colombia also have some capacity growth this
week.