Airline Weekly Capacity Reached 100 million Seats: OAG

The Official Airline Guide (OAG) reports that airline weekly capacity reached 100 million seats for the first time since January 2019. However, airline capacity currently stands at 93.6 million, which implies a reduction of 0.5 percent from the previous mark.

“What really stands out this week is just how close North America is to 2019 levels, just 2 percent behind and Western Europe is even closer, just 0.9 percent behind the same week in 2019 meaning we could really declare that they are recovered. However, these regions are not quite at the levels of growth being recorded in Central Asia, and parts of Latin America, but progress all the same - and this might finally allow us to begin to look forward to what might come, rather than continue to look back,” reads OAG’s report.

OAG also predicted seat capacity for airlines around the world, indicating that some have made a full recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization also highlighted that during this time of the year, it is common for seat capacity to fall. The comparison shows a 9 percent fall from mid-August to October 2022. 

In Central America and Upper South America, the recovery has already outpaced figures from October 2019, with increases of 5.7 percent and 14.1 percent, respectively. However, the Caribbean, Lower South America and North America are yet to match capacity from the same period. 

“We are starting to see more stability now in seat capacity across the largest countries. China has seen the largest increase, of 2.9 percent this week, a fairly small increase in the context of recent changes, equivalent to 320,000 more seats… The US has seen capacity fall week-on-week, with 209,000 seats removed as carriers prepare for the winter season.  Most European markets are seeing capacity trimmed this week (despite this being a week where many European countries have half-term school holidays) with the UK, Germany and Italy all seeing capacity drop by 2-3 percent last week,” explained OAG. 

In Mexico, OAG registered a 10.9 percent increase from October 2019 to October 2022, situating the country as one of the successful recovery market stories so far in terms of passenger capacity. Mexico’s seat capacity stands at 2.04 million weekly seats as of Oct. 23, 2022, and is considered as one of the top 20 country markets by OAG.