Ahead of this year's Routes Americas forum, Routesonline is providing a snapshot on the leading airlines and airports and most used aircraft types across the region. Here we look closely at the airlines serving Central America and highlight the region's top performers.
The data is all supplied by OAG Aviation using its OAG Schedules Analyser tool.
Scheduled Air Capacity From Central America (2005 - 2014)
Our analysis of published schedules for the past ten years shows that air capacity within and from Central America has risen from 65,973,868 available seats in 2005 to 84,717,514 available seats in 2014. This represents a growth of 28.4 per cent across the period, an average annual increase of 3.2 per cent. In the past year capacity increased 8.3 per cent.
Top Ten Airlines in the Central American Market (2014)
Mexican airlines dominate air travel within and from Central America. Aeromexico leads the way with a 22.7 per cent share of available capacity within and from South America in 2014. It has seen a 6.1 per cent network capacity growth from the region in 2014, but its share of capacity has still declined by 0.4 percentage points due to the growth of low-cost carriers in the Mexican market.
Its fast growing low-cost rivals are its closest competitors in the region with Interjet Airlines holding a 14.2 per cent capacity share, up from 13.9 per cent in 2013 (following a 9.4 per cent increase in network capacity last year) and Volaris holding a 13.4 per cent capacity share, up from 13.0 per cent in 2013 (following a 10.3 per cent increase in network capacity last year).
Avianca, which has played an important role in consolidation in Central American skies, has seen the largest rise in network capacity in the region with growth of 88.8 per cent between 2013 and 2014, increasing its share of capacity from 0.5 per cent to 4.4 per cent as its partner operations and former TACA International services have been amalgamated under its ‘AV’ code.
Interestingly, only two of the top ten airlines in this market reported a decline in capacity in this region between 2013 and 2014: Mexico’s Vivaaerobus, which saw capacity decline 3.8 per cent and Mexican regional flyer, Aeromar, which witnessed a 5.2 per cent decline in available seats.
Fastest Growing Airlines in the Central American Market (2010-2014)
Looking at capacity data in the region across a five year period, alongside the relatively new market entrants of Sunwing Airlines, Tropic Air (on a scheduled basis), it is Avianca that has grown capacity by the biggest margin with capacity up 1388.2 per cent from 2010, thanks to its merger with TACA International Airlines.
Significant growth during this timescale was also recorded by United Airlines (up 806.9 per cent) thanks to its merger with Continental Airlines and Vivaerobus (up 83.7 per cent), while Interjet Airlines (up 136.1 per cent), Volaris Airlines (up 117.9 per cent), Copa Airlines (up 102.2 per cent) and Maya Island Air (up 102.1 per cent) all more than doubled capacity during the analysis period.
Data comparison between 2013 and 2014 shows that Colombia's Avianca has seen the largest year-on-year growth among the top 20 carriers in this region with capacity rising 88.8 per cent over the 12 month period, closely followed by Tropic Air with a 79.9 per cent increase year-on-year. Double-digit capacity growth within and from Central America was also recorded by Sunwing Airlines (up 25.7 per cent), Delta Air Lines (up 21.6 per cent), JetBlue Airways (up 14.6 per cent), Iberia (up 11.8 per cent) and Volaris (up 10.3 per cent) in 2014 versus 2013.
Scheduled Central American Capacity by Aircraft Type
The chart below shows which aircraft types were most prevalent in the Central American market during 2014. The schedule data shows the Airbus A320 (320) is the most widely used aircraft type in this market with a 26.1 per cent share of available seats with overall network capacity up 12.4 per cent between 2013 and 2014 from 19.68 million seats to 22.11 million seats.
The second most utilised aircraft type in this market is the Boeing 737-800 (738) with a 15.9 per cent share, while third most widely operated type by network capacity is the Airbus A319 (319) with a 7.7 per cent share.
The biggest rise in annual capacity among the top ten aircraft types were recorded by the Embraer ERJ-145 (ER4) with a 468.8 per cent rise in available domestic seats in 2014 versus 2013. The largest decline in annual capacity was recorded by the older generation Boeing 737-300 (733) with a fall of 13.6 per cent versus 2013, albeit it remains the fifth most used aircraft type in the region.
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