Global capacity in February 2025 will reach 443.7 million seats, an increase of 1.1 pc on last February, says a report by aviation analytics company OAG.

In a press statement, OAG says that the growth may appear slower due to the leap year occurring last year. It adds that adjusting the capacity to take into account the impact of the Leap Year shows underlying global capacity growth of 4.7 pc versus last year.

OAG adds that various airlines around the world have added 4.9 million seats, across a range of regions including Western Europe, where 2.4 million seats have been added and South East Asia with 1.5 million additional seats this year.

OAG adds that the region with the largest growth rate is North Africa, where capacity has increased by 10.8 pc compared to last year.

Overall, OAG says that the number of (one-way) flights in the schedule from December 30, 2024 to the end of the current week stands at almost 4.1 million flights, with an average number of commercial flights per day of 113,872.

In terms of fastest growing airlines, OAG says that two large low cost carriers (LCCs), IndiGo and Ryanair are the carriers in the Top 20 showing double digit growth compared to February 2024 as IndiGo is up 11.3 pc and Ryanair up 12.4 pc. The next fastest growing carrier in the Top 20 is United Airlines which is up 5 pc.

OAG adds that the strong growth by Ryanair this month moves the airline to the position of 6th largest airline in terms of frequencies, two places up from last month, with the European LCC moving ahead of IndiGo, which is down one position to 8th and China Eastern Airlines, which is down one position to 7th.

It says that Deutsche Lufthansa AG continues to show the largest rate of decline, down 13 pc in terms of frequencies compared to last year.
In terms of popular country pairs for travel, OAG says that Mexico–United States is the largest international market with 4.1 million seats in the market this month, which is over 1 million seats larger than the second largest international market, Spain-United Kingdom with 3 million seats.

According to OAG, China-Japan is the market in the Top 20 showing the largest growth rate, up 50 pc on last year, followed by Italy – Spain which is up 17 pc. Republic of Ireland-United Kingdom is the market in the Top 20 showing the largest rate of decline, down 4.9 pc of last year.

The US remains the largest domestic market with 76.3 million seats in the market this month, which is over 8 million seats larger than the second largest domestic market, China with 68.3 million seats Mexico is the domestic market in the Top 10 showing the largest growth rate, up 7.8 pc on last year, ahead of last month’s fastest growing domestic market, India, which is the second fastest this month, up 7.4 pc.

On the downside, OAG says that Indonesia is the market in the Top 10 showing the largest rate of decline, down 6.5 pc of last year, followed by Australia which is down 6.2 pc on February 2024.