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ANALYSIS
Airline Capacity Breakdown
Capacity snapshot
A monthly breakdown of airline capacity across the different regions
using data from FlightGlobal's schedule database, illustrating the
November capacity:
173.9bn ASKs/wk
7.1%
vs November 2016
fastest-growing regional markets
Asia
November 2016.
-Paci
fic
Intra-regional capacity
growth slowed to Behind only Qatar
Middle
rth
rth
rth
rth
No
No
No
No
No
Asia
Asia
Asia
Asia
Asia
-Paci
-Paci
-Paci
-Paci
-Paci
fic
fic
fic
fic
fic
Middle
Middle
Middle
Middle
Middle
East
East
East
East
East
La
La
La
La
La
tin
tin
tin
tin
tin
Am
Am
Am
Am
Am
ca ca ca ca ca
er
er
er
er
er
i
62.1bn ASKs/wk 42.2bn ASKs/wk 39.2bn ASKs/wk 12.5bn ASKs/wk 5.6bn ASKs/wk
9.3% YoY 4.4% YoY 7.3% YoY 7.3% YoY 8.6% YoY
Notes: Data based on one week of schedules data, November 2017 against November 2016
Figures reflect airlines operating nonstop unrestricted scheduled passenger services
Only one of the 10 carriers tracked by FlightGlobal is set to cut capacity in terms of ASKs Taiwanese
carrier China Airlines. Star Alliance operator All Nippon Airways is cutting capacity in terms of seats, but
will raise it as measured by ASKs November data shows.
in November, having kept capacity China Southern Airlines 10,159,169 8.4 16,250,917,445 9.5
China Eastern Airlines 9,771,476 9.5 14,108,480,446 10.3
growth to low levels or reduced it
Air China 7,293,609 12.5 14,658,708,280 14.6
over much of the summer. Singapore All Nippon Airways 6,895,748 -1.4 9,828,398,667 3.2
Airlines, low-cost unit Scoot and Cathay Pacific Airways 2,371,248 3.4 10,547,989,787 5.3
regional arm Silk Air have throughout Thai Airways International 2,105,854 1.1 7,115,781,848 4.9
that period expanded capacity. Singapore Airlines 2,045,539 1.7 9,702,661,598 1.4
Air New Zealand 1,728,061 4.1 3,486,171,627 4.9
The big Gulf three Emirates, Etihad China Airlines 1,408,206 -0.3 3,858,464,131 -1.6
EVA Air 1,271,327 5.5 4,948,586,562 7.4
Airways and Qatar Airways dominate Source: FlightGlobal
the market between Asia-Pacific
and the Middle East. FlightGlobal
schedules data for November shows they are the three biggest operators in that market by any
measure of capacity. Emirates is the largest of the three.
Only three Asian carriers, all Indian operators, rank among the 10 biggest operators between Asia-
Pacific and the Middle East in terms of seats. Jet Airways, which has a partnership with minority
shareholder Etihad, is the biggest of these carriers.
the last flights under its own brand at the end Ryanair 9,730,854 5.0 12,204,501,443 9.2
Lufthansa 7,081,654 8.7 14,810,673,211 4.8
of October and has sold parts of its former
Turkish Airlines 6,792,416 12.3 13,486,644,645 9.6
operation to EasyJet and Lufthansa. Neither do EasyJet 5,791,812 4.9 6,158,797,545 6.9
the figures include another European carrier in British Airways 5,162,673 3.0 15,114,764,316 3.0
formal restructuring, Alitalia. Air France 4,490,900 1.2 13,008,766,024 3.3
SAS 3,616,437 0.2 3,902,494,198 1.6
The figures though show a return to capacity Norwegian 3,242,616 9.1 6,297,586,089 29.0
growth at IAGs Spanish low-cost unit Vueling. KLM 3,099,038 7.6 9,130,138,105 4.0
Vueling Airlines 2,541,430 14.5 2,424,033,988 11.8
The latter cut capacity slightly during the third
Wizz Air 2,467,240 19.8 3,542,966,000 20.3
quarter, as part of efforts to strengthen its Iberia 2,281,775 4.0 5,170,808,162 4.3
network following operational challenges last Swiss 1,770,528 1.1 3,816,620,698 4.9
summer. Austrian 1,374,539 6.1 1,886,389,097 1.0
Finnair 1,364,004 11.0 3,142,092,733 18.0
FlightGlobal schedules data for November Aer Lingus 1,133,460 5.0 1,980,865,685 11.6
shows Air France and Paris as the key European Air Europa 1,063,466 6.6 2,402,711,947 4.5
Brussels Airlines 970,385 8.4 1,566,651,379 21.1
points for routes serving Africa. The SkyTeam
Transavia Airlines 487,190 -8.4 883,184,492 -4.2
carrier is the biggest operator in terms of seats Transavia France 384,804 13.2 587,039,196 22.9
between Europe and Africa, while the Parisian Icelandair 326,682 10.2 1,011,495,486 12.1
airports of Charles de Gaulle and Orly are the Source: FlightGlobal
But the biggest US carrier group in terms of capacity, American Airlines, is increasing its capacity at the
slowest rate albeit off a much bigger
base number. It will lift ask capacity by North America airline capacity
just over 1% and its seat capacity with Airline Seats 2017 Change % ASKs 2017 Change %
be fractionally down November figures American Airlines 19,585,526 -0.5 33,972,170,567 1.1
Delta Air Lines 17,755,590 1.5 30,108,601,743 2.0
show.
Southwest Airlines 16,811,325 4.1 20,291,702,873 2.6
United Airlines 14,809,267 4.6 33,402,639,946 4.8
United Airlines, which has found itself
JetBlue Airways 3,909,421 5.9 7,207,387,385 5.3
at the heart of a major pricing battle Alaska Airlines 3,649,068 6.2 6,184,545,816 9.8
since rolling out its basic economy Spirit Airlines 2,486,284 13.4 4,118,949,835 17.5
offering, is lifting capacity at the WestJet 2,399,357 8.0 4,005,310,637 8.6
Hawaiian Airlines 1,173,678 5.8 2,485,196,389 5.9
highest rate of the US majors. It is set
Allegiant Air 1,145,687 9.2 1,644,602,122 9.1
to lift seat and ASK capacity by 4.6%
Virgin America 917,804 7.2 2,242,987,136 11.7
and 4.8% respectively this month, Source: FlightGlobal
United remains the biggest carrier by a distance on routes between North America and Asia-Pacific
with around double the capacity of the next biggest operator, FlightGlobal schedules data for
November shows.
The Star Alliance carrier stands out above several carriers with similar levels of capacity. Korean Air
is the second biggest carrier in the sector in terms of seats, Cathay Pacific the second biggest as
measured by ASKs, while Delta Air Lines has the second most flights between the two regions.
SkyTeam partners Delta and Korean this summer struck a deal on a new joint venture providing each
with a series of onwards connections via their USA-South Korea services.