With 10.1 pc increase in its overall seat capacity in the week December 2-8, as compared to the same week in December 2023, Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo emerged as the second fastest growing airline in the world, says an analysis by OAG, an aviation industry consultancy. It says that United Airlines, which is the biggest international carrier in the United States, grew the fastest with a 10.7 pc rise in its seat capacity.

Similarly, while Türkiye emerged as the fastest growing domestic aviation market in the same week, with a growth of 7.7 pc, India was just behind at 7.6 pc increase in its domestic seat capacity in the week.

Overall, OAG says that this year, from January 1-December 8, there were a total of 34.84 million scheduled flights, taking the average to 101,563 flights every day, the highest ever. Global capacity in December 2024 will reach 487.8 million seats this December, an increase of 4.7 pc on last December. It says that carriers have added 21.8 million seats across a range of regions including Asia Pacific, with 9.9 million more seats and Europe with 5.2 million extra seats.

OAG says that other fast growing airlines include Alaska Airlines and American Airlines, that have added 9 pc and 8.8 pc more seats this month. It says that whilst most of the US major mainline carriers are increasing capacity year on year, the largest US low cost carriers (LCCs) are not, with Southwest reducing capacity by 8.9 pc and Jetblue by 2.8 pc.

Globally, German flag carrier, Lufthansa, stood as the airline with the sharpest drop in capacity, The carrier reducing capacity by 11.8 pc this month compared to last December.

In terms of country pairs for growth of airline capacity, Asia takes the top slot as the two of the fastest growing pairs are in Asia and China figures in both. 

OAG says that capacity on China-Japan route is up by 61 pc and on China-Thailand route, the seat capacity has risen by 49.6 pc as these markets continue to see recovery following the pandemic. However, in terms of absolute numbers, both of these markets remain around a quarter lower than their December 2019 capacity levels.

OAG says that Japan also features in two other Top 20 country markets, with strong growth taking place between Japan-South Korea, which is up 14.5 pc and Japan-Taiwan which has risen 18.9 pc.

It says that only two of the largest international country pairs are contracting this month, with capacity between Canada-USA down by 2 pc year on year, and USA-UK dropping 5.6 pc this December as compared to last year.