India’s total aviation capacity, in terms of seats, in the current year has risen to over 238 million, reflecting a growth of 8 pc over the capacity last year and over 12.7 pc more than the total air capacity in the country in 2019, in the pre-pandemic era.

These figures, says OAG, a leading aviation industry tracking and analysis firm, make India not just the third largest aviation market globally, but also the fastest growing large market in the world in the post-pandemic era and one of the fastest growing markets this year as compared to 2023.

OAG says that India’s market potential is only now being realised, with two very strong local airlines in Air India and Indigo, both of which have placed substantial aircraft orders that will only accelerate growth from a country with an insatiable appetite for air travel.

In terms of other large markets, the United States, which is the largest market with a capacity of over 1.2 billion seats, a growth of 5.9 pc over the 2019 level and 4.1 pc over the last year. Next in line was China, with over 920 million seats, a growth of 10 pc over the pre-pandemic level and 6.2 pc higher than its capacity in 2023. Japan and Spain make the fourth and fifth largest markets, though Japan remains 4.6 pc below the pre-pandemic capacity.

In a detailed report about where the global aviation market stands in 2024, OAG says that whilst there are many reasons to be optimistic about aviation, it is important to put everything into context and that means acknowledging that global capacity is only 2.4 pc higher than in 2019, the last year before the pandemic closed down the whole global economy.

According to the report, by the end of this year, four regional aviation markets will still not have returned to their 2019 capacity levels, effectively stagnating in terms of global connectivity and potentially trade. These are South East Asia, which is 13.1 pc below, Eastern Europe about 8.6 pc, Southern Africa a hefty 17 pc below the 2019 level and Southwest Pacific that is 4.5 pc under.

OAG says that Southern Africa has seen the loss of two of its largest airlines but ironically from an integrity of service and financial viability standpoint, is in a better position than pre-pandemic. In the Southwest Pacific, modest capacity cuts versus 2019 from a range of airlines including Qantas, Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia, some of which are supply and maintenance related, continue to draw back capacity growth.

It says that more optimistically, 2024 has seen continued airline capacity growth in some parts of the world. Among regional markets with more than 100 million seats per annum, North Africa and Upper South America have been standout growth markets.  This is largely due to  Colombian capacity increasing by 40 pc compared to 2019, and Egypt reporting over 50 pc capacity growth versus 2019, as low-cost airlines such as Air Cairo, EasyJet and FlyNAS build their presence in the market.

According to OAG, the United Arab Emirates is a clear winner with 15 pc more capacity than in 2019 and 10.5 pc capacity growth year on year. All the region’s major locally-based airlines are adding more capacity as fast as supply allows.

OAG adds that the power of Istanbul as a global hub continues to develop and the Turkish Airlines group are certainly driving more and more growth with new destinations added this year and some 12.3 pc growth on 2019; with approval for the operation of three simultaneous runways capacity at IST will just grow and grow in the coming years. And perhaps surprisingly Spain is now the largest European market as 9.4 pc growth in 2024 has nudged them ahead of the United Kingdom.