INTERNATIONAL. Global scheduled airline capacity this week is up by +2% this week compared to last, signalling the first rise in almost ten weeks, according to flight analyst OAG. This week’s data include early May, which is a holiday in some markets (including China). Global seat capacity remains below 30 million (29.2 million), from over 105 million in mid-January.
From 1 May Wizzair will resume operations from some of its European bases, while Turkish Airlines will restart some domestic flights. In Asia most of the added capacity comes from Chinese carriers planning ahead for the Labour Day holiday, said OAG.
Domestic capacity has risen by 450,000 seats in China, the same level of decline reported in the US domestic market for the week.
OAG noted that Southwest Airlines, American and China Eastern continue to fill the top three spots for seat capacity. But it also reported that Shandong Airlines, which in January was ranked 39th among airlines worldwide, is now tenth. This reflects how deep the cuts have been among traditional major carriers, said OAG.
As a further indication of the scale of the crisis, OAG reported that 164 airlines that operated scheduled services in the week of 20 January now have no service planned. A further 91 are operating at less than 10% of their normal weekly capacity.
