Middle East airline capacity continues to grow

The Middle East region continues to enjoy an upward trend for the third month in a row, with flights and capacity for travel to and from the region up by 12% and 11% respectively - representing an additional 5,154 more flights and 1.1 million more seats than in October 2008 - while the number of flights and seats offered within the region are up by 18% (6,275 more flights) and 20% (1.09 million more seats) respectively.

According to the latest monthly report on trends in the supply of airline flights and seats for October 2009 from aviation data specialists OAG, the Middle East saw both flights and capacity for travel to and from the region experience a third consecutive month of growth.

Global airline capacity for October 2009 is showing positive growth of 1.04% compared to October 2008, down slightly from September’s growth of 1.4%.

Worldwide, airlines have 299.9 million seats available this month, a rise of 1.04% (3,091,580 more seats) over October 2008 levels.

Above: The month by month trend since the start of the economic downturn. Courtesy: OAG

David Beckerman, vice president OAG Market Intelligence said: “We’re seeing continued growth in global capacity even with slight decreases in frequency across Europe and North America as we go into fall, which would tend to indicate a trend towards re-evaluating less popular routes.”

Frequencies are marginally down compared to October 2008. The world’s airlines have scheduled 2.4 million flights for October 2009, down by 1% (24,445 fewer flights) compared with the same month last year. Last month, the year on year global frequency figure was down by 0.6% and capacity was up by 1.4%.

The low cost sector is slowing in growth as a whole, yet growth is particularly strong in the Middle East with 12% more flights, Latin America with 54% International and 48% domestic capacity growth, and Africa with a 9% increase in flights.