12 Of August Has Designated The Busiest Day For Airline Capacity

The airline sector has had an unusual week this past week. We spent the last several weeks inching closer and closer to 90 million seats a week, and now we’ve finally arrived at our goal, which stands at 90.7 million seats a week. The fact that China is leading the breakthrough and bringing back around 2.2 million in capacity for the next seven days is encouraging, and the good news is that we may anticipate additional capacity in the next weeks.

However, despite the record-breaking number, there are still shortages of various kinds all over the globe, which are preventing a complete recovery of the travel industry. EasyJet has made the decision to discontinue selling tickets in Row 26 of its A319 aircraft in order to reduce the operating configuration and decrease the total number of seats available down to 150.

This will allow them to eliminate the need for a fourth crew member. This may result in around 60,000 fewer seats being made available for purchase during the month of August, as well as perhaps increased selling prices on certain services in order to compensate for the loss of seats.

The local airlines in Nigeria have ceased all domestic flights because a lack of fuel and an increase in price have made it difficult for such operations to continue. According to Google Maps, the same trip that used to take a flight of eighty minutes to complete will now take nearly twelve hours to complete by road. And lastly, Travel Impressions International (TII) has disclosed that the company may not be able to provide a refreshment service to customers on some flights due to a lack of available supplies, and they have made this information public.

It may seem like a lot, but it is just 0.6 percent, which has been the trend for the previous several months as some stability returns to the market. Airline capacity for the next four months continues to be adjusted every week, with a further 11.4 million tickets cut until the end of August.

It appears that the 12th of August will be the busiest day of the year for capacity this year, with 16.1 million seats planned at the moment; the busiest day in 2021 was a very unusual 17th of December, with 12.5 million seats on offer. This suggests that the 12th of August will be the busiest day of the year for capacity this year.

The global airline capacity is currently at 83 percent of what it was during the same week in 2019. Five regional markets are now ahead of their 2019 levels, the most notable of which is Central and West Africa with over 26 percent more capacity. However, the rising cost of fuel may slow down some of that capacity growth over the next few weeks.

Both Upper South America (+6 percent) and Central America (+7 percent) are also ahead of the curve. This is due to the fact that both areas have had an increased proportion of low-cost aircraft activity throughout the epidemic. And lastly, South Asia, more specifically India, is still doing well with over 74,000 more tickets being made available compared to two years ago, with low-cost airlines once again taking the lead in the capacity buildup.
The most significant improvement was seen over North East Asia this past week.

The greatest increase from week to week in regional capacity was seen in North East Asia, with an increase of almost 14 percent. China saw an increase of approximately 23 percent, which resulted in the addition of over 2.2 million seats, bringing the total capacity back up to 11.7 million.

It may seem like a lot, but China’s market size was just 17 million in the previous year, so there is still some room for growth in the second-largest market in the world. When that capacity does return, of course, we should be close to 95 million seats a week, which might very well be the high point for this year.

This week, the number of available seats on Japanese airlines fell by 7 percent, making it the country with the biggest decrease in capacity. There is continuing speculation that Japan will ease inbound travel restrictions by allowing “controlled group” travel in the coming months. This seems like just as crazy of an idea as travel bubbles, travel corridors, or vaccinated travel lanes (VTLs), as previous experience has shown that countries are either open or, in this case, closed.

International services to Japan are restricted to a small number of airports, and there are stringent controls on daily arrival quotas and testing requirements both upon arrival and while in Japan. The economic and tourism damage to what was the host country for the Olympic Games the previous year will be felt for some time. With a performance of -32% compared to the previous week in 2019, Japan currently holds the title of the world’s top twenty nations with the poorest recovering market.

Other markets inside the top twenty nation markets to report capacity reductions week on week include Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Capacity has restored to normal levels during the peak Eid holiday travel season in each of these countries, however.

The capacity of UK airlines is seven times higher than in 2021.

A significant number of national marketplaces have reported very significant gains in capacity year on year. The United Kingdom remains at the top of this specific list with about seven times more seats than in the previous year. Meanwhile, Canada, Italy, and Germany are all close to three times busier than they were in the previous year. This causes stress on the supply chain for aviation.

There are already more tickets available on low-cost airlines than there will be in 2019.

There are currently more available tickets each week at four of the top twenty airlines than there were at this time in 2019. These are all examples of low-cost airlines and their names are Ryanair, Wizzair, Indigo, and Spirit. This demonstrates that low-cost airlines have recovered quicker than their traditional counterparts during the last year.

The positions of all three of China’s major airlines have improved on the list of the world’s twenty most successful airlines; China Southern is now in sixth place, while China Eastern is in the tenth slot. And even though it had been a rough week for British Airways, there has been a ray of light; the airline is now moving into 16th place, moving ahead of Air France, which must make them feel better, even if it’s just because Air France pulled back on some capacity.

We should be up to 95 million seats a week within the next few weeks with a little bit of luck and an easing of lockdowns in China. We should also be confident that we will maintain that level at least over the next several months as the peak summer season continues.

We will have made progress in contrast to the peak week of summer 2021, when capacity hit 83 million during the week of July 19 if we are able to maintain our current level. However, in contrast to the peak week of summer 2019, when capacity surpassed 119 million during the week of July 29, we still have a long way to go, but progress is progress no matter how you look at it.