¦ European aviation activity up nine per cent
¦ 1.5 million extra seats on sale this month
¦ Double-digit increases for Poland, Turkey, Baltics
¦ Middle East tops global growth averages July 2006: Aviation industry confidence in strengthening demand for travel to and from Europe has prompted a big increase in the number of flights on offer this month, with an extra 1.5 million seats on sale for the start of the summer season. Although this month’s worldwide flight total is only one per cent higher than in July 2005, the European figure is nine per cent up on last year – driven by double-digit growth in Eastern European operations. The figures are revealed in OAG’s latest Quarterly Airline Traffic Statistics, a regular snapshot of airline activity around the world. OAG collates data from more than 1,000 scheduled airlines, on a daily basis, to give an overview of anticipated travel demand. “Ever-rising operating costs mean that airlines have to count every penny, so the decision to lay on extra flights is not taken lightly,” says Duncan Alexander, OAG Managing Director for Europe, Middle East & Africa. “They use highly-sophisticated tools and techniques to predict market trends, which means that airline timetables are a pretty accurate reflection of consumer travel demand.” The number of July flights to and from the UK, and to and from France, is only three per cent up on the same month last year. However, the number of scheduled services into and out of Eastern Europe is up 12 per cent, with Poland (up 21 per cent) and Turkey (up 19 per cent) seeing the biggest growth in international flights. Poland and Turkey are also among the European leaders when it comes to low-cost airline growth, with the number of international budget flights up 69 per cent and 63 per cent respectively. However, this year’s budget airline breakthrough has come in the Baltic States, where the number of low-cost operations into and out of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania has rocketed 87 per cent compared with July 2005. In global terms, the Middle East is witnessing the greatest growth in aviation activity overall, with a 16 per cent increase in July flights. Airlines plan to operate 11 per cent more flights to and from the Asia-Pacific region, and ten per cent more to and from Africa. The number of flights to and from the USA and Canada, and to and from Central and South America, has increased one per cent, in line with the global average.
- ENDS - For further Information please contact:
For further information about OAG please contact Duncan Alexander, Managing Director Business Development at OAG on +44 1582 695476 dalexander@oag.com or Chris Pickering at DBA on +44 207 930 8033 or e-mail chris@dbapr.co.uk
About OAG
OAG is a global travel and transport information company. We have three core activities:
? managing and distributing information within the passenger and cargo aviation sectors
? providing travel information to business travellers
? providing advertising and promotion opportunities for the aviation and travel communities. Our business is underpinned by our data management expertise. We hold a breadth of travel related content and are best known for our 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 we are tracking around 28 million departures. Using these vast databases, we provide a broad range of multi-lingual products for business and consumer customers, available in virtually any way the customer wants it: Internet, PDA, mobile, digital and print. We are a private company with 400 employees based in 9 offices in Europe, the Americas and Asia.
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