Europe's aviation industry by numbers - Q1 2018 update

Routesonline analyses the European aviation industry, taking a quarterly look at the top routes served and revealing the airlines that are dominating the market. We also rank the top ten airports by available seat capacity.

The latest figures for Q1 2018 - all data provided by OAG

Top European airline routes

London Heathrow - Dubai International has the most available two-way capacity during the first quarter of 2018, according to analysis of figures from OAG Schedules. The route is operated non-stop by five carriers, with Emirates having a 60.3 percent share of the market. The Turkish domestic route of Izmir Adnan Menderes - Istanbul Ataturk has the second most available capacity, while Madrid Adolfo Suarez-Barajas - Barcelona has the third.

https://infogram.com/eu-q1-2018-1h984wpdmejz2p3


Top European airlines

Low-cost carrier Ryanair's capacity is 29,353,212 during the first three months of 2018, up 4.4 percent on the same period last year. Lufthansa recorded the largest percentage increase in total seats on flights to/from Europe during the period, with a 9.2 percent increase to 17,969,238.

https://infogram.com/eu-q1-2018-airlines-1h1749nmewrl2zj


Top European airports

London Heathrow posted a 2.3 percent rise in the number of available departure seats in the first quarter of 2018 with 11,919,281, putting it comfortably ahead of Frankfurt International in second. Moscow Sheremetyevo recorded the largest percentage rise in the top ten after growing 12.6 percent compared with a year ago.

https://infogram.com/eu-q1-2018-airports-1hmr6gkz5epo2nl


The data:

Top routes by capacity (Q1 2018):

Rank Route Capacity (Q1 2018)
1 London Heathrow - Dubai International 937035
2 Izmir Adnan Menderes - Istanbul Ataturk 901951
3 Madrid Adolfo Suarez-Barajas - Barcelona 893564
4 Ankara Esenboga - Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen 874955
5 London Heathrow - New York J F Kennedy 871093
6 Izmir Adnan Menderes - Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen 820062
7 Paris Orly - Toulouse 806238
8 Oslo Gardermoen - Trondheim Vaernes 757089
9 Munich International - Berlin Tegel 742664
10 Frankfurt International - Berlin Tegel 719720

Top airlines by capacity (Q1 2018):

Rank Row Labels Total capacity Q1 2018 Capacity share Q1 2018 (%) Total capacity Q1 2017 Capacity share Q1 2017 (%)
1 Ryanair 29353212 10.11 28112427 10.3
2 Easyjet 20049054 6.9 18046242 6.61
3 Turkish Airlines 18189112 6.26 15609916 5.72
4 Lufthansa German Airlines 17969238 6.19 16462876 6.03
5 British Airways 11427425 3.93 11078050 4.06
6 Air France 11012535 3.79 10816674 3.96
7 Aeroflot Russian Airlines 10412989 3.59 9841148 3.61
8 SAS Scandinavian Airlines 9465596 3.26 9684586 3.55
9 KLM-Royal Dutch Airlines 7824535 2.69 7185640 2.63
10 Pegasus Airlines 7542633 2.6 6677595 2.45

Top airports by departure seats (Q1 2018):

Rank Airport Available departure seats Q1 2018 Capacity share Q1 2018 (%) Available departure seats Q1 2017 Capacity share Q1 2017 (%)
1 London Heathrow 11919281 4.1 11646898 4.27
2 Frankfurt International 9675480 3.33 8878126 3.25
3 Istanbul Ataturk 9661212 3.33 8872839 3.25
4 Paris Charles de Gaulle 9616867 3.31 9201503 3.37
5 Amsterdam 9197347 3.17 8590881 3.15
6 Madrid Adolfo Suarez-Barajas 7798135 2.69 7317996 2.68
7 Munich International 6842949 2.36 6646422 2.44
8 Barcelona 6163864 2.12 5720932 2.1
9 Moscow Sheremetyevo 5878877 2.02 5140105 1.88
10 Rome Fiumicino 5706689 1.96 5340003 1.96
David Casey

David Casey is Editor in Chief of Routes, the global route development community's trusted source for news and information.