Global airline capacity this week rose to 53.8 million seats, with growth in all 10 regional markets except the Southwest Pacific, according to OAG analysis.
Overall, capacity stands at about 45 percent of where it was this time last year, but capacity has grown by 34 percent since the middle of June. The amount of capacity removed this week at the last minute—capacity planned for this week but removed within the past week—was down to about 3 percent of seats, lower than previous weeks, which indicates "that airlines are finally getting a closer grip on planned operations as the recovery continues or equally that many network planners have taken a well-deserved holiday on their own services in the last few days," according to OAG analyst John Grant.
Western Europe this week had the highest week-over-week growth rate at 16 percent, OAG indicated. Most regional markets are operating about 50 percent or less of their capacity levels compared with January, but both Northeast Asia and Eastern Europe have grown close to 75 percent of their pre-Covid-19 capacity levels.