- 300 million seats offered in a month for the first time - World's
airlines offer 5% more flights - Transatlantic route shows
significant growth pre full impact of Open Skies - Aircraft orders
rise by 30% CHICAGO, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The number of seats
offered on flights operating this month (July) has reached an
all-time high, with a capacity of 309.7 million seats worldwide --
equivalent to an airline seat for the entire population of the
United States*. According to the latest statistics from OAG, the
world's authority on flight information, this represents 19.9
million extra seats (a 7% increase) available to travelers compared
with the same month last year. The number of flights for July 2007
has increased by an additional 129,373, a rise of 5% year on year.
A total of 2.6 million flights are timetabled this month, topping
the previous industry high of 2.51 million reported for May 2007,
and up from 2.47 million for July 2006. Within this global figure
of all scheduled passenger flight operations, the low cost sector
shows a 23% increase of over 76,000 more flights year on year and a
27% rise in the number of seats available, representing an extra
12.9 million low cost seats compared to July 2006. The low cost
sector for this month now accounts for 16% of all flights (up from
13% a year ago) and 20% of all seats (up from 16%). The figures are
revealed in the latest OAG Quarterly Airline Traffic Statistics, a
regular snapshot of airline activity around the world. Flight
information and data solutions company OAG, collates data from more
than 1000 scheduled airlines, on a daily basis, which gives an
accurate overview of anticipated travel demand. Aircraft fleet data
from OAG's sister company BACK Aviation Solutions reveals there are
38,234 planes operating worldwide compared to 36,803 the same time
last year, an increase of almost 4%. North America accounts for
nearly one third with 13,800 aircraft, followed by Europe with
10,390. The regions showing the largest year on year increases are
Asia Pacific (6.6%) and Africa (6.2%). John Weber, managing
director Aviation Services at OAG, commented: "It is apparent from
our statistics that there is continued and growing consumer demand
for air travel. While airlines worldwide are responding to this
demand by increasing their capacity, they are also committed to
making significant investment in new, more efficient aircraft."
Globally, there are more than 6,100 aircraft on order this month
compared to this time last year, a rise of 30%. Of these, Asia
Pacific accounts for 2,035 orders. When compared with the number of
aircraft on order a year ago, Europe is showing the largest
percentage increase at 43% (488 more aircraft on order), followed
by Asia Pacific with 34%, representing 516 more aircraft. North
America currently has 287 additional new aircraft on order than in
July 2006, an increase of 19%. Although the numbers are relatively
small, Africa and Central/South America are both showing a 29%
increase in the number of aircraft on order, respectively 28 and 75
additional new orders since this time last year. Route Growth Most
major routes are showing growth of between 1% and 3%. However, even
before the full impact of Open Skies, transatlantic frequency and
capacity for July 2007 have both risen by 10%, or 2,700 more
flights and 700,000 more seats. The number of flights between
Western Europe and Africa continues to show above-average growth at
11%, representing 2,100 more flights between these two continents
and over 322,000 more seats available. Activity within Latin
America is picking up again, with the region showing a 3% growth of
more than 4,600 additional flights this month over July 06, and a
5% increase in capacity representing an additional 880,000 seats.
Below is a chart showing a 7-year growth trend for selected regions
in terms of number of flight schedules: Key July July July July
Regions 2001 2002 2003 2004 World Wide 2,355,297 2,252,786
2,210,003 2,339,526 To/From Africa 20,141 20,298 21,851 23,396
Within Africa 46,992 48,739 47,946 4 9,041 To/From Asia/ Pacific
34,075 34,036 36,053 42,828 Within Asia/ Pacific 368,010 371,827
369,858 420,106 To/From Central &South America 51,302 50,613
51,692 58,287 Within Central &South America 203,239 197,443
176,019 174,882 To/From Europe 74,803 71,195 75,092 83,346 Within
Europe 518,408 508,280 510,932 534,350 To/From Middle 22,685 22,209
24,110 27,573 East Within Middle East 25,529 26,278 26,008 28,048
To/From North America 82,622 77,571 78,062 87,478 Within North
America 1,050,186 962,121 935,810 971,645 Growth Key July July July
07 Regions 2005 2006 2007 vs. 06 World Wide 2,435,895 2,471,633
2,601,006 5% To/From Africa 25,785 28,472 31,644 11% Within Africa
54,187 51,314 54,575 6% To/From Asia/ Pacific 45,178 50,273 53,450
6% Within Asia/ Pacific 452,707 491,777 528,775 8% To/From Central
&South America 61,364 61,935 63,060 2% Within Central
&South America 177,618 183,859 188,520 3% To/From Europe 89,136
96,742 103,722 7% Within Europe 558,770 577,563 622,072 8% To/From
Middle East 29,784 34,642 37,162 7% Within Middle East 29,080
33,526 37,453 12% To/From North America 92,843 95,034 99,196 4%
Within North America 991,488 950,045 975,494 3% The Europe and Asia
markets are fast approaching the same capacity levels as the US:
For July 07 the volumes are 74m in Europe and 79m in Asia Pacific
compared with 87m in the US. Despite this, Europe and Asia both are
still some way behind in the number of flights. Other noteworthy
statistics for July 2007 vs July 2006: All passenger flight
operations: -- China Domestic up by 25k flights (19%) and 3.6m
seats (19%) -- India Domestic up by 8,900 flights (26%) and 1.8m
seats (45%) -- To/from Thailand up 1500 more flights (10%) and 321k
seats (8%) -- To/from South Korea up 4000 more flights (26%) and
645k seats (17%) -- To/From UK up 12k more flights (10%) and 2.5m
seats (13%) -- To/from France up by 4.7k flights (6%) and 800k
seats (8%) -- To/from Germany up by 6k more flights (5%) and 1m
seats (7%) -- To/from Italy up by 7,700 flights (13%) and 1.3m
seats (16%) -- To/From Spain up 13k more flights (20%) and 2.5m
seats (24%) -- To/from Greece up by 2,700 flights (20%) and 500k
seats (22%) -- To/from Poland 1300 flights (9%) and 216k seats
(13%) -- Domestic Russia up 2,900 flights (10%) and 217k seats (7%)
-- To/from Morocco up by 1,300 flights (20%) and 241k seats (24%)
-- Domestic Mexico up by 3,500 flights (11%) but just 26k seats
(1%) -- Domestic Canada up by 8,300 flights (13%) and 217k seats
(5%) Routes/Hubs Contributing to the strong transatlantic growth:
-- New York JFK to/from W Europe has 457 more flights (up 10%) and
127k more seats (up 11%) a month -- London Gatwick to/from USA
& Canada has 292 more flights (up 16%) and 57.4k more seats (up
11%) -- Rome Fiumicino to/from USA & Canada has 231 more
flights (up 24%) and 64.7k more seats (up 29%) -- Madrid to/from
USA & Canada has 194 more flights (up 31%) and 44k more seats
(up 27%) -- London Heathrow to/from USA and Canada has 154 more
flights (up 3%) and 51.6k more seats (up 3%) -- Chicago O'Hare
to/from W Europe has 143 more flights (up 6%) and 53k --
Conversely, there are 135 fewer flights this month between Atlanta
and Western Europe, a drop of 7%. * Source: CIA -- The World Fact
Book (estimate for US population in July 2007 is 301,139,947) About
OAG OAG is a global flight information and data solutions company
for the passenger aviation, air cargo logistics and business travel
markets. It brings together buyers and sellers of air travel and
transport through the management and distribution of airline
product information; the supply of corporate travel planning tools;
and the promotion of travel and transport products. OAG is part of
Commonwealth Business Media (http://www.cbizmedia.com/), a wholly
owned subsidiary of United Business Media plc
(http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/). It operates globally in
three vertical sectors: Aviation Services, Cargo Services and
Travel Services, and incorporates the technical consulting and data
expertise of CBM's other leading aviation brand, BACK Aviation
Solutions (http://www.backaviation.com/). OAG's business is
underpinned by its data management expertise. It holds a breadth of
travel related content and is best known for its airline schedules
database. This holds future and historical flight details for 1,000
airlines and more than 3,500 airports. Every ten seconds a flight
is updated on the OAG system. Over the coming year it will track
around 28 million departures. More information about the company,
its products and its services is available on the OAG web sites
http://www.oag.com/, http://www.oagdata.com/ and
http://www.oagcargo.com/. DATASOURCE: OAG CONTACT: Kathy Marr of
OAG, +1-630-515-3240, Web site: http:/// http://www.oag.com/
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