OAG has published figures indicating that the SARS virus has had a more significant impact on the global airline industry than the Iraq conflict. The figures are part of the third OAG Quarterly Report on global airline schedules. According to the report, despite signs of recovery shown earlier in the year, the total number of scheduled flights worldwide has fallen by 3% year on year, equivalent to over 2.5m seats. This is largely due to the combined impact of SARS, war and the worldwide economic slowdown. China and the Asia Pacific region have seen the biggest impact with flights to and from China down 45% despite being up 20% in the last quarter. The UK market continues to perform steadily with scheduled flights to and from the UK up 4%, helped by healthy growth in the low cost sector. Despite recent cuts by some airlines to their transatlantic services, the key transatlantic route shows little change overall compared to the same week in 2002. Flights between Heathrow and the US and Canada are up by 5% but at the same time flights from Gatwick to the same region are down by 10%. Flights between Hong Kong and Western Europe have fallen by 36% and between Hong Kong and the US and Canada by more than two-thirds or 69%. The budget sector has continued to perform strongly with flights to and from the UK up 36% and low cost within Europe up 77%, an extra 4,713 flights. Having dropped steadily since the outbreak of the conflict, worldwide flights are now recovering and are only 1% lower than when the war began.
http://www.oag.com/graphics/quarterlystatsJun03.pdf