OAG reports a healthy state of affairs for the global air capacity this month which will reach 440.4 million this month
With the biggest Chinese holiday season in full swing, airplanes across North-East Asia are getting filled up faster than they can be deployed, according to a report by global aviation consultancy OAG which has predicted that North-East Asia will see the biggest growth in airline capacity in February as more than 20.7 million seats have been added in February 2024, compared to the same month last year.
In its weekly snapshot, OAG reports a healthy state of affairs for the global air capacity this month which will reach 440.4 million this month, an increase of 13.1 pc on the same month in 2023, which equates to 51 million more seats in aircraft flying around the world.
OAG says that every region of the world is growing this month compared to the same month in 2023 and the region seeing the highest percentage growth is Central Asia, that is up 30.4 pc on February 2023 or an increase of about 510,000 seats.
Though North-East Asia clocks in second in percentage growth, its bigger size means that with 23.7 pc growth, it will add 20.7 million seats, followed by Western Europe where capacity is up 8.1 million seats, equivalent to a 11.6 pc increase.
OAG says that the growth rates vary sharply as the regions seeing the lowest percentage growth are Central America and Central/Western Africa where capacity is up only 3 pc in both markets.
OAG says that overall, since the start of the year 2024 and up to February 18, the total number of flights in the world rose to 4.6 million flights, averaging commercial flights per day is 93,950.
China propels North-Asian traffic
The impact of Chinese travel revival is being felt across all parametres says OAG. This includes fastest rise in aviation capacity in country pairs.
Though Mexico-United States remains the largest international country pair with 4.3m seats, which is 19.7 pc higher than in February 2023. But the top four country pairs in terms of highest percentage growth compared to the same month last year are all Chinese markets. These include Japan-China that is up 895 pc in February 2024 compared to the year before, followed by South Korea-China growing at 649 pc, Thailand-China which is up 443 pc and Hong Kong-China that is rising by 120 pc. This strong growth in Chinese markets highlights how the China outbound market continues to recover, says OAG.
In terms of airline growth, too, the Chinese carriers are making their mark on the global scene. While the US legacy carriers American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are the three largest carriers in the world in terms of frequencies this month and all are growing but the fastest growth has come from three Chinese carriers reflecting the strong recovery in the Chinese aviation market. Air China has grown by 31.8 pc, China Eastern Airlines by 23.7 pc and China Southern Airlines is up by 19 pc.
The United States remains the largest domestic market in the world this month, with 4.6 million more seats than second placed China. OAG says that the domestic market in US is up 3.7 pc on last February, but China is whilst China’s domestic market continues to see strong growth, up 16.3 pc on February 2023, which equates to 10.2 million more seats than the same month last year.
