Global Airline Capacity Continues to Stabilise, Reports OAG, as July Figures are...

Global Airline Capacity Continues to Stabilise, Reports OAG, as July Figures
are Released
Decline is Just One Percent Compared to July 2008

LONDON, July 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- One year on since the world's
airlines began to curb their seat capacity in the face of global economic
pressures, the cutbacks are starting to stabilise with just over 315 million
seats on offer this month, a drop of just one percent over July 2008 levels,
reports OAG, ( http://www.oagaviation.com), the world's leading aviation data
business, as it releases its monthly report on trends in the supply of
airline flights and seats.
David Beckerman, vice president OAG Market Intelligence, said,
"Airline capacity is often cited as a barometer of economic confidence.
Carriers adjust their fleet and services in anticipation of market demand for
air travel, which is vulnerable to corporate cost management and to
disposable income of leisure travellers at times of financial uncertainty.
"The OAG figures, which amalgamate the planned operations for airlines
worldwide, show a clear and very welcome upward trend from the dramatic
declines we have seen in recent months. We can only wait and see if this
outlook bears financial fruit in actual passenger numbers and airline load
factors."
The world's airlines have scheduled a total of 2.55 million flights for
July 2009, down by 3% compared with the same month last year, with a drop in
capacity of 3.3 million fewer seats on offer to travelers around the globe.
Last month, the year-on-year global frequency and capacity figures were down
by 4% and 2% respectively.
A chart showing the month-by-month trend since the start of the economic
downturn can be seen at http://www.oagaviation.com/trends-chart-jul.jpg
The figures are revealed in the July 2009 edition of OAG FACTS (Frequency
& Capacity Trend Statistics), the dynamic monthly market intelligence tool
providing the latest data on current passenger airline activity around the
world.
OAG FACTS uses interactive graphs to display a visual trend of the
performance of a specific airport, route, country or region from 2001
onwards, sourced from OAG's consolidated database of global airline
schedules. A more detailed review of this month's OAG FACTS statistics -
including information about specific regions, routes and airports with
illustrative charts and graphs - is available to download at
http://www.oagaviation.com/aviation-reports/reports-facts-0709.htm
OAG is a UBM Aviation business (http://www.ubmaviation.com). It provides
essential aviation workflow data and analytics sourced from its comprehensive
proprietary airline schedules, fleet and MRO databases. UBM Aviation is a
division of United Business Media Limited (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com
)
Notes to Editors
A chart showing the month-by-month trend since the start of the economic
downturn is available at at http://www.oagaviation.com/trends-chart-jul.jpg
SOURCE UBM Aviation

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