-- World's airlines offer 114,000 more flights and 17.7 million more
seats year on year
-- 12 million more low cost seats
-- Low cost sector now accounts for 16% of all flights worldwide and
1 in 5 of all airline seats
-- Significant rises in transatlantic flights
BEIJING, May 15 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The global airline industry shows no sign of reducing its activities; with a 5% increase in the number of flights scheduled for May 2007 compared with the same month last year. According to the latest statistics from OAG, the world's authority on flight information, this represents an additional 113,827 flights and an astonishing 17.7 million extra seats available to travellers.
A total of 2.51 million flights are timetabled this month, topping the previous industry high of 2.49 million reported for August 2006. Within this global figure of all scheduled passenger flight operations, the low cost sector shows a 22% increase of over 70,000 more flights year on year and a 26% rise in the number of seats available, representing an extra 12 million low cost seats.
Duncan Alexander, Managing Director at OAG, commented: "From an industry perspective this healthy growth bodes very well for the future. We are witnessing a step change in the way airlines are differentiating their product. On the one hand we have seen the low cost sector grow from 6% of all flights in 2001 to 16% today--- this is 1 in 5 of all airline seats. On the other hand, network carriers are investing on the high-yield end of the market and upgrading their premium products. This is great news from a traveller's viewpoint, with much more competition and choice."
The figures are revealed in the latest OAG Quarterly Airline Traffic Statistics, a regular snapshot of airline activity around the world. Flight information and data solutions company OAG, collates data from more than 1000 scheduled airlines, on a daily basis, which gives an overview of anticipated travel demand.
Regional Growth
Regionally, this month there are over 29,000 more flights within Europe offering 5.5 million more seats, an increase of 5% and 8% respectively over May 2006. Asia/Pacific continues to show strong growth within the region, with 38,000 more flights and 6.2 million more seats, increases of 8% and 9% respectively. North America, while showing a relatively modest growth in percentage terms for flights and seats at 3% for both, represents an additional 2.5 million additional seats on 26,000 more domestic flights.
Growth is especially strong within the Middle East region and for international flights to and from Africa. OAG statistics for this month show there is an increase of 13% in the number of intra-regional flights within the Middle East, representing 4,000 flights and 1/2 million seats. International flight operations to and from Africa rose by 14%, or 3,300 flights, offering 13% more capacity, or 600,000 more seats.
Looking specifically at the low cost sector, all regions are showing steady growth year on year. Low cost airlines have timetabled 19,000 more flights (3.5 million more seats) within Asia Pacific; 17,500 more flights (2 million more seats) within North America; and 25,700 more flights (4.9 million more seats) within Europe.
Route Growth
With the imminent start of Open Skies across the Atlantic, it is interesting to note that transatlantic traffic for May 2007 shows one of the highest increases of all the major routes: up by 6%, or 1,400 more flights a month involving over 420,000 more seats.
In sheer size, the most noteworthy route showing a year on year increase is for flights between Western Europe and Africa. This month there are over 2,200 more flights scheduled between these two continents, up 13%, and over 360,000 more seats available.
Below is a chart showing a 7-year growth trend for selected regions in terms of number of flight schedules:
Key Regions May-01 May-02 May-03 May-04
Worldwide 2,318,609 2,168,288 2,099,743 2,243,013
To/From Africa 17,664 17,415 17,908 20,232
Within Africa 47,406 46,789 46,294 46,693
To/From Asia/Pacific 32,099 30,453 31,129 37,666
Within Asia/Pacific 357,993 359,409 351,844 410,887
To/From Central &
South America 49,698 45,966 46,590 52,307
Within Central &
South America 200,598 194,532 172,928 171,949
To/From Europe 68,660 63,228 62,218 72,669
Within Europe 528,043 495,186 499,557 522,448
To/From Middle East 20,708 18,862 20,145 24,343
Within Middle East 24,677 23,703 23,108 25,435
To/From North America 79,357 70,605 67,710 78,365
Within North America 1,025,688 925,255 883,162 922,810
America
Key Regions May-05 May-06 May-07 Growth
07 vs. 06
Worldwide 2,367,951 2,399,815 2,513,642 5%
To/From Africa 22,491 24,446 27,759 14%
Within Africa 51,844 49,647 51,695 4%
To/From Asia/Pacific 40,189 45,151 48,079 6%
Within Asia/Pacific 445,483 479,550 517,685 8%
To/From Central &
South America 54,577 55,336 55,437 0%
Within Central &
South America 172,144 179,438 185,711 3%
To/From Europe 78,230 84,963 90,730 7%
Within Europe 557,321 582,536 611,746 5%
To/From Middle East 27,029 31,247 33,720 8%
Within Middle East 27,053 31,282 35,350 13%
To/From North America 82,622 84,719 86,573 2%
Within North America 961,537 914,431 940,306 3%
Other noteworthy statistics for May 2007 vs May 2006:
All passenger flight operations:
-- To/From UK up by more than 8,000 flights (7%) and 1.9m seats (10%)
-- Domestic China up by 22.9k flights (18%) and 3.2m seats (18%)
-- To/From China up by 5.6k flights (17%) and 1m seats (12%)
-- Indonesia domestic up by 1,700 flights (6%) and 213k seats (6%)
-- Emerging market of Vietnam: flights to/from up by 839 flights (19%)
and 125k seats (14%)
-- To/From Russia up by 2,500 flights (16%) and 353k seats (16%)
-- Healthy growth for new EU states, including:
-- To/From Romania up by 800 more flights (14%) and 98k seats (16%)
-- To/From Bulgaria up by 300 more flights (10%) and 44k seats (12%)
Specific to the Low Cost sector:
-- To/From UK up by 5,100 flights (14%) and 1.1m more seats (17%)
-- To/From Spain up by 13.3k more flights (68%) and 2.5m more seats (77%)
-- To/From Germany up by 10,600 flights (52%) and 2m seats (64%)
-- 62% growth in India domestic (7.2k more flights) and 1.6m more seats
(151%)
-- Within Brazil up 40% flights and 44% seats (4.9k flights, 800k seats)
-- Within Malaysia up 40% flights (1,200 flights) and 59% seats (264k)
-- To/From Morocco increase of 171% flights (932 more flights) and 172%
seats (159k)
Routes/Hubs
-- Contributing to the transatlantic growth: New York JFK to/from
W Europe has 300 more flights (up 7%) and 70k more seats (up 6%) a
month
-- Between Asia Pacific & Western Europe there is steady 3% growth in
flights and seats (347 flights & 98k seats)
-- Specifically from Hong Kong to/from Western Europe, increase of 172
flights (15%) & 59k seats (16%)
-- Transpacific growth is running at 2% year on year, with 167 more
flights and 3% more seats (76k)
-- Between Beijing and N America there are 83 more flights (16%) and 15k
more seats (10%)
-- Between Shanghai and N America there are 59 flights (17%) and 21.8k
more seats (23%)
-- Contributing to the growth between Europe and Africa, London Heathrow
has an additional 122 flights (6%) and 31k seats (6%)
-- Between Cairo and Europe there are 160 more flights (11%) and 20.6k
seats (7%)
Notes to Editors:
Analysis on specific countries and key routes and hubs worldwide is available from OAG on request.
About OAG
OAG is a global flight information and data solutions company for the passenger aviation, air cargo logistics and business travel markets. It brings together buyers and sellers of air travel and transport through the management and distribution of airline product information; the supply of corporate travel planning tools; and the promotion of travel and transport products.
OAG's business is underpinned by its data management expertise. It holds a breadth of travel related content and is best known for its airline schedules database. This holds future and historical flight details for 1,000 airlines and more than 3,500 airports. Every ten seconds a flight is updated on the OAG system. Over the coming year it will track around 28 million departures.
More information about the company, its products and its services is available on the OAG web sites http://www.oag.com , http://www.oagdata.com and http://www.oagcargo.com .
OAG is part of Commonwealth Business Media (http://www.cbizmedia.com ), a wholly owned subsidiary of United Business Media plc (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com ).
