India’s largest airline, IndiGo, has once again become the fastest growing airline in the world, with the addition of 10,012 new flights in January, compared to the same month last year, translating into an increase of 16.9 pc in frequencies.

According to data released by OAG, an aviation industry tracking and analysis firm, in absolute numbers, however, United Airline, the largest international airline of the United States topped the global list, adding over 16,000 flights in the month.

OAG adds that following IndiGo in growth rate is China’s Hainan Airlines which has added 11.5 pc frequencies, as compared to last year.

In its weekly analysis, OAG says that in the period between December 30, 2024 and January 26, there were a total 2.73 million scheduled flights, making it an average of  97,667 scheduled commercial flights everyday.

OAG says that despite a broad growth in the sector, three of the top 20 airlines have declined this month compared to January 2024. Of these three, two are Low Cost Carriers (LCCs), America’s Southwest Airline, whose frequencies have declined by 8.9 pc and Irish LCC Ryanair which registered a marginal decline of 1.5 pc. Germany’s flag carrier, Lufthansa, has seen its flight frequencies decline by 10.2 pc, compared to last year.

In terms of country pairs, indicating flights between two countries, OAG says that the markets showing the strongest growth in January are China-Japan, which has seen an increase of 61.9 pc in flight frequencies, while China-Thailand has witnessed a growth of 54.1 pc.

OAG says that Japan also features in two other Top 20 country markets, with strong growth taking place between Japan-South Korea, which has risen by 13.7 pc and Japan-Taiwan by 16.7 pc.

OAG says that with 11.8 pc growth in January, India is the fastest growing domestic aviation market, while the domestic market showing the largest volume growth in seats this month is China, which has added 2.66 million seats over January 2024. With its rapid growth, China, which is the 2nd largest domestic market, is rapidly closing the gap in terms of seat capacity. China is now less than 8.5 million seats behind the United States, as against 10.3 million seats 12 months ago in January 2024. 

According to OAG, global capacity in January 2025 will reach 483.9 million seats, an increase of 5.5 pc on last January. It adds that carriers have added 25.3 million seats across a range of regions including Asia Pacific, which has seen an addition of 14 million seats, while Europe has seen an increase of 5.4 million seats.

The region seeing strongest growth rate is North Africa, where capacity has increased by 14.7 pc compared to last year and the rate of growth in Central Asia is also at a similar rate, with an increase of 12.4 pc on last January.