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Global Air Capacity Posts Modest Gains

Airlines scheduled nearly 30 million seats last week First Time Since January OAG reports a 2 percent weekly increase; growth led by China

May 17, 2020

Global airline capacity increased last week for the first time since late January, posting a 2 percent increase in capacity over the previous week. According to the latest data from OAG, a global resource for digital flight information, there were 29.8 million scheduled seats in the past week, 600,000 more than the previous week.

That’s still about 80 million fewer seats than operated in the same week last year.

There were pockets of growth in 8 of the 17 regional markets OAG analyzed, led by China, where a million domestic seats were added. In the US, one positive note was cancellations dropped below 4 percent, according to John Grant, an analyst with OAG, a substantial improvement on recent levels.

In April, OAG reported airline capacity reductions had reached bottom and projected a return of some services beginning in mid-May.