Airlines Offer Record Number Of Seats In July

- 300 million seats offered in a month for the first time - World's airlines offer 5% more flights - Transatlantic route shows significant growth pre full impact of Open Skies - Aircraft orders rise by 30% 


CHICAGO, July 13  /PRNewswire/ -- The number of seats offered on flights operating this month (July) has reached an all-time high, with a capacity of 309.7 million seats worldwide -- equivalent to an airline seat for the entire population of the United States*.  According to the latest statistics from OAG, the world's authority on flight information, this represents 19.9 million extra seats (a 7% increase) available to travelers compared with the same month last year.

The number of flights for July 2007 has increased by an additional 129,373, a rise of 5% year on year. A total of 2.6 million flights are timetabled this month, topping the previous industry high of 2.51 million reported for May 2007, and up from 2.47 million for July 2006.

Within this global figure of all scheduled passenger flight operations, the low cost sector shows a 23% increase of over 76,000 more flights year on year and a 27% rise in the number of seats available, representing an extra 12.9 million low cost seats compared to July 2006. The low cost sector for this month now accounts for 16% of all flights (up from 13% a year ago) and 20% of all seats (up from 16%).

The figures are revealed in the latest OAG Quarterly Airline Traffic Statistics, a regular snapshot of airline activity around the world.  Flight information and data solutions company OAG, collates data from more than 1000 scheduled airlines, on a daily basis, which gives an accurate overview of anticipated travel demand.

Aircraft fleet data from OAG's sister company BACK Aviation Solutions reveals there are 38,234 planes operating worldwide compared to 36,803 the same time last year, an increase of almost 4%.  North America accounts for nearly one third with 13,800 aircraft, followed by Europe with 10,390. The regions showing the largest year on year increases are Asia Pacific (6.6%) and Africa (6.2%).

John Weber, managing director Aviation Services at OAG, commented: "It is apparent from our statistics that there is continued and growing consumer demand for air travel. While airlines worldwide are responding to this demand by increasing their capacity, they are also committed to making significant investment in new, more efficient aircraft." Globally, there are more than 6,100 aircraft on order this month compared to this time last year, a rise of 30%.  Of these, Asia Pacific accounts for 2,035 orders.  When compared with the number of aircraft on order a year ago, Europe is showing the largest percentage increase at 43% (488 more aircraft on order), followed by Asia Pacific with 34%, representing 516 more aircraft. North America currently has 287 additional new aircraft on order than in July 2006, an increase of 19%.  Although the numbers are relatively small, Africa and Central/South America are both showing a 29% increase in the number of

aircraft on order, respectively 28 and 75 additional new orders since this time last year.

Route Growth

Most major routes are showing growth of between 1% and 3%. However, even before the full impact of Open Skies, transatlantic frequency and capacity for July 2007 have both risen by 10%, or 2,700 more flights and 700,000 more seats.

The number of flights between Western Europe and Africa continues to show above-average growth at 11%, representing 2,100 more flights between these two continents and over 322,000 more seats available.

Activity within Latin America is picking up again, with the region showing a 3% growth of more than 4,600 additional flights this month over July 06, and a 5% increase in capacity representing an additional 880,000 seats.

Below is a chart showing a 7-year growth trend for selected regions in terms of number of flight schedules:

  Key           July       July       July        July
   Regions      2001       2002       2003        2004
  World
   Wide    2,355,297  2,252,786  2,210,003   2,339,526

  To/From
   Africa     20,141     20,298     21,851      23,396

  Within
   Africa     46,992     48,739     47,946     4 9,041

   To/From
    Asia/
     Pacific  34,075     34,036     36,053      42,828

  Within
  Asia/
    Pacific  368,010    371,827    369,858     420,106

  To/From
    Central
   &South
   America    51,302     50,613     51,692      58,287

   Within
    Central
   &South
   America   203,239    197,443    176,019     174,882

  To/From
   Europe     74,803     71,195     75,092      83,346

  Within
   Europe    518,408    508,280    510,932     534,350

  To/From
   Middle     22,685     22,209     24,110      27,573
  East

  Within
   Middle
  East        25,529     26,278     26,008      28,048

  To/From
   North
  America     82,622     77,571     78,062      87,478

  Within
   North
  America  1,050,186    962,121    935,810     971,645



                                                 Growth
  Key          July        July        July        07
   Regions     2005        2006        2007      vs. 06

  World
   Wide   2,435,895   2,471,633   2,601,006          5%

  To/From
   Africa    25,785      28,472      31,644         11%

  Within
   Africa    54,187      51,314      54,575          6%

   To/From
    Asia/
     Pacific 45,178      50,273      53,450          6%

  Within
  Asia/
    Pacific 452,707     491,777     528,775          8%

  To/From
    Central
   &South
   America   61,364      61,935      63,060          2%

   Within
    Central
   &South
   America  177,618     183,859     188,520          3%

  To/From
   Europe    89,136      96,742     103,722          7%

  Within
   Europe   558,770     577,563     622,072          8%

  To/From
   Middle
  East       29,784      34,642      37,162          7%

  Within
   Middle
  East       29,080      33,526      37,453         12%

  To/From
   North
  America    92,843      95,034      99,196          4%

  Within
   North
  America   991,488     950,045     975,494          3%




The Europe and Asia markets are fast approaching the same capacity levels as the US: For July 07 the volumes are 74m in Europe and 79m in Asia Pacific compared with 87m in the US.  Despite this, Europe and Asia both are still some way behind in the number of flights.

  Other noteworthy statistics for July 2007 vs July 2006:

  All passenger flight operations:
     -- China Domestic up by 25k flights (19%) and 3.6m seats (19%)
     -- India Domestic up by 8,900 flights (26%) and 1.8m seats (45%)
     -- To/from Thailand up 1500 more flights (10%) and 321k seats (8%)
     -- To/from South Korea up 4000 more flights (26%) and 645k seats (17%)
     -- To/From UK up 12k more flights (10%) and 2.5m seats (13%)
     -- To/from France up by 4.7k flights (6%) and 800k seats (8%)
     -- To/from Germany up by 6k more flights (5%) and 1m seats (7%)
     -- To/from Italy up by 7,700 flights (13%) and 1.3m seats (16%)
     -- To/From Spain up 13k more flights (20%) and 2.5m seats (24%)
     -- To/from Greece up by 2,700 flights (20%) and 500k seats (22%)
     -- To/from Poland 1300 flights (9%) and 216k seats (13%)
     -- Domestic Russia up 2,900 flights (10%) and 217k seats (7%)
     -- To/from Morocco up by 1,300 flights (20%) and 241k seats (24%)
     -- Domestic Mexico up by 3,500 flights (11%) but just 26k seats (1%)
     -- Domestic Canada up by 8,300 flights (13%) and 217k seats (5%)

  Routes/Hubs
  Contributing to the strong transatlantic growth:
     -- New York JFK to/from W Europe has 457 more flights (up 10%) and 127k
        more seats (up 11%) a month
     -- London Gatwick to/from USA & Canada has 292 more flights (up 16%)
        and 57.4k more seats (up 11%)
     -- Rome Fiumicino to/from USA & Canada has 231 more flights (up 24%)
        and 64.7k more seats (up 29%)
     -- Madrid to/from USA & Canada has 194 more flights (up 31%) and 44k
        more seats (up 27%)
     -- London Heathrow to/from USA and Canada has 154 more flights (up 3%)
        and 51.6k more seats (up 3%)
     -- Chicago O'Hare to/from W Europe has 143 more flights (up 6%) and 53k
     -- Conversely, there are 135 fewer flights this month between Atlanta
        and Western Europe, a drop of 7%.



* Source: CIA -- The World Fact Book (estimate for US population in July 2007 is 301,139,947)

About OAG

OAG is a global flight information and data solutions company for the passenger aviation, air cargo logistics and business travel markets. It brings together buyers and sellers of air travel and transport through the management and distribution of airline product information; the supply of corporate travel planning tools; and the promotion of travel and transport products.

OAG is part of Commonwealth Business Media (http://www.cbizmedia.com/), a wholly owned subsidiary of United Business Media plc (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/). It operates globally in three vertical sectors: Aviation Services, Cargo Services and Travel Services, and incorporates the technical consulting and data expertise of CBM's other leading aviation brand, BACK Aviation Solutions (http://www.backaviation.com/).

OAG's business is underpinned by its data management expertise. It holds a breadth of travel related content and is best known for its airline schedules database. This holds future and historical flight details for 1,000 airlines and more than 3,500 airports.  Every ten seconds a flight is updated on the OAG system. Over the coming year it will track around 28 million departures. More information about the company, its products and its services is available on the OAG web sites http://www.oag.com/, http://www.oagdata.com/ and http://www.oagcargo.com/. 

DATASOURCE: OAG



CONTACT: Kathy Marr of OAG, [phone], 



Web site:  http:/// http://www.oag.com/

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