Global Airline Capacity Shows Positive Growth For The Second Consecutive Month, Reports OAG, As September Figures Are Released

CHICAGO -

- Growth of 1.4% compared to September 2008

Global airline capacity for September 2009 is showing positive growth for the second consecutive month, reports OAG, (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. The world’s airlines have scheduled 296.9 million seats, a rise of 1.4% (4,130,744 more seats) over September 2008 levels.

(Photo: www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090924/NY81644 )

David Beckerman, vice president OAG Market Intelligence, said, “As the summer season winds down, the steady upward trend we have seen since May is continuing. After 11 straight months of capacity cutbacks, these figures indicate a growing confidence within the industry that demand for air travel is starting to pick up.”

Frequencies are marginally down compared to September 2008. The world’s airlines have scheduled a total of 2.4 million flights for September 2009, down by 0.6% (14,321 fewer flights) compared with the same month last year. Last month, the year on year global frequency figure was down by 2% and capacity was up by 0.2%.

The month by month trend since the start of the economic downturn can be seen in chart format above, or at www.oagaviation.com/trends-chart-sep.jpg.

The figures are revealed in the September 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 www.oagaviation.com/aviation-reports/reports-facts-0909.htm.

OAG provides the industry’s most accurate single source of airline information, with essential aviation workflow data and analytics sourced from its comprehensive proprietary airline schedules, fleet and MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) databases. OAG is a leading brand of UBM Aviation, a global data and information business for the air transport industry. For more information visit www.ubmaviation.com

Source: UBM Aviation

For media enquiries, a copy of the full Executive Summary with charts (Word or PDF format), or any individual charts, please contact, Dan Dulik, Director, Global Marketing, OAG, +1-630 515-5167, dan.dulik at oag.com; or Pamela Johnston, President, PJ Inc. Public Relations, +1-212-629-8445, Pamela at pjinc.net / NOTE TO EDITORS: A chart showing the month-by-month trend since the start of the economic downturn is available at https://www.oagaviation.com/trends-chart-sep.jpg. / Photo: https://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090924/NY81644