Scheduled global airline capacity this week is up 2 percent compared with last week, the first week-over-week increase in more than two months, according to data from OAG.
"Whisper it quietly, but we may have reached the bottom," OAG analyst John Grant wrote. "With some countries beginning to ease lockdown restrictions, a few airlines are cautiously peering out from the carnage and testing market demand with some capacity being added back—in some cases, actually, quite a lot of capacity!"
Regions seeing capacity increases include Northeast Asia, where Chinese carriers are adding capacity ahead of a holiday this week, and Western Europe, where low-cost carrier Wizz Air plans to restart some flights this week. Additionally, Turkish Airlines plans to restart some domestic service on Friday.
Grant noted that this week "may represent a turning point for airline capacity as a number of pioneering airlines begin to cautiously add services back and hold their breaths, waiting to see how demand responds." He added that OAG is "receiving record levels of schedule changes from airlines around the world wrestling with possible operational dates, skeleton networks and fleet adjustments as they plan for the inevitable and much awaited recovery."
Even so, total capacity this week is 29.2 million seats, compared with 110 million seats this time last year, according to OAG. More than 160 airlines that were operating 10 weeks ago currently have no service scheduled, and an additional 91—including Lufthansa, KLM, Qantas and Iberia—are operating at less than 10 percent of their normal capacity levels, the report indicated.
Domestic flights currently make up 85 percent of total global capacity, though OAG noted the international capacity share has inched up this week thanks to some growth within Western Europe as well as Hong Kong and South Korea.