On a global scale, airlines increase their capacity measured in available seats in anticipation of one passenger traffic recovery according to the consultant in the summer OAG
The regions where the number of available seats increased the most in the week of March 22-29 were Western Europe, with 19%; Central Europe, 16%; North Africa 13% and the Southeast Pacific 11%.
OAG emphasized that in the United States the capacity of the airlines increased only 1%, but that there is a lot of expectation about the demand that there will be to go to the Mexican beaches during the summer.
“Airlines are generally quite optimistic during the summer, with an upward trend in their capacity during the second and third quarters of the year.
“Airlines are generally optimistic during the summer, with an upward trend in their capacity during the second and third quarters of the year”; Analysis of the consultancy OAG.
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“Airlines certainly appear to be increasing their capacity in regions with the highest numbers of people vaccinated, but others are also increasing their capacity in anticipation of high demand for vacations in Mexico during the summer,” the advisor said in an analysis.
Also, in recent weeks, airlines have announced new destinations in the United States for both Easter and summer, many of which are responding to increased demand for vacation travel within the United States, where Florida is expected to be one of the states with the highest activity.
In Mexico, the seat supply increased by 6% in the week of March 22-29.
Volaris reported an increase in its future reservations and as a result increased its previous capacity advice for the first quarter of the year to approximately 85% of its capacity, measured in terms of available seats per mile, compared to the same period last year.
However, given the volatility in demand and last minute booking patterns, the airline is not providing guidance in terms of capacity for the second quarter of the year, although “an improvement from the first quarter is expected based on current trends in reservations “, thus indicated. the airline
a report.
60% capacity is the average operating rate for airlines in Europe.
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In contrast, in Brazil, airlines reduced their capacity by 70,000 fewer seats in the week ending March 29, as the country faces a new wave of infections.
The third wave of infections is now underway COVID-19 in Europe it does not affect the capacity of the airlines in that region, as there are 930 thousand additional seats for the Easter period, an increase of 20% from the previous week.
While in Eastern Europe the capacity increase was 16%.
“It’s hard to believe that demand will support the 24% increase in seats in Germany; A capacity growth of 21% in Spain and an incredible capacity increase of 49% in Italy ”, emphasizes OAG.
The company stated that despite the increase in the supply of available seats in Europe, the commercial aviation in that region it is still operating at 60% of the capacity it had before the pandemic, as it is one of the regions with the weakest recovery on a global scale.
In contrast, Vietnam posted a 26% capacity increase in Asia during the week ending March 29, adding 270,000 seats and Thailand 132,000 seats.
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