News
Promising start to northern winter schedule leaves Southeast Asia in its wake
November 2nd 2021
The northern winter schedule is off to a promising start with eased border restrictions in Australia and Thailand and an analysis of forward capacity that shows the number of available seats in December standing at 47% higher than last year, at 379 million. Read More » Aviation data specialist, OAG, has reported total scheduled airline capacity is now 27% below 2019 levels with just two regions, Southeast Asia (down 72%) and the South West Pacific (down 67%), remaining at less than half their pre-pandemic capacity. However, OAG chief analyst, John Grant, cautions forward capacity is being cut, with 13 million seats dropped since last week until the end of the year. “Total scheduled airline capacity this week fell by just under one percentage point, which is expected as we transition from summer to winter with Western Europe seeing the largest capacity cuts with more than 1.3 million seats dropped week-on -week,’’ he said. ”Northeast Asia, or more specifically China, also saw capacity cuts with the loss of above 400,000 seats. More cuts are likely at short notice this week as airlines grapple with COVID outbreaks.”
