OAG says that American Airlines was the largest carrier in the year, with 248.2 million scheduled seats
The last week of 2022 saw total capacity on scheduled airlines around the world at 4.7 million seats, about 31 pc over the capacity in the corresponding week of 2021, says airline data aggregator and analyst firm OAG.
Total number of flights operated in 2022 stood at 31.2 million, a growth of 25 pc over the previous year and the average capacity per flight increased to 152 from 146 a year earlier, says OAG. It adds that American Airlines was the largest carrier in the year, with 248.2 million scheduled seats and the United States was the largest market and the city with largest capacity in the world was Atlanta with 54.9 million seats.
OAG says that most of the improvement was seen in the second half of 2022 and that the capacity in the first quarter of 2023, as of now stands at 1.27 billion seats, just behind the 1.34 billion seats in 2019, indicating a near-total return to the pre-pandemic peaks.
OAG highlights that this capacity does not reflect the eased travel conditions in China and hence the total capacity for the period could well exceed the pre-pandemic number.
North America is now just 2.4 pc below the capacity deployed in first quarter of 2020. All regions of the world, with the exception of the Caribbean, have reported weekly capacity increases. South East Asia, North Africa and Central Asia are now 50 pc over the capacity in the first quarter of 2022, leading the recovery of the aviation industry.
Not many changes have been seen in the top 20 markets, though a few nations have swapped places. For instance, Brazil displaces the United Kingdom as 5th largest market in the world. Collectively the top twenty country markets account for 75.5 pc of all capacity this week, in 2020 that share was 74.5 pc so little change in the distribution, says OAG.
Low-cost airlines drive industry growth
Most of the growth in capacity has come from the low-cost carriers, says OAG. European airlines Wizzair leads the chart with 47 pc growth, followed by Ryanair and Indian market leader IndiGo at 15 pc above the pre-pandemic capacity. OAG says that with new aircraft deliveries scheduled for the low-cost operators, they should widen the gulf with the full-service airlines in the current year.
However, the leadership lies with full-service carrier American Airways that is now at 4.78 million seats for this week, just 1.5 pc off the corresponding week in 2020, says OAG. Southwest follows with 4.13 million seats, up 9.2 pc, Delta with 3.77 million, United with 3.52 million, Ryanair with 3.05 million seats and Indian carrier, IndiGo at 2.13 million seats, says OAG.
