Press Releases 2006
'Global Warming’ cuts no ice with Europe's Air Travellers
9 October 2006
- European air travel demand hits five-year high
- Airlines to operate 7,300 extra flights this month
- Poland, Baltics and Turkey lead growth charts
- OAG chief warns against ‘pollution tax’
Europe’s business and leisure travellers are largely unmoved by the howls of political protest against the aviation industry’s contribution to global warming, latest figures from aviation analysts OAG suggest. Demand for air travel is at its highest October level since 9/11.
Worldwide, the number of flights timetabled for this month is three per cent higher than in October last year. However, the number of air services to and from Europe is up nine per cent – airlines plan to operate nearly 7,300 more flights than in October 2005.
Using sophisticated “yield management” systems to predict global travel patterns, airlines are this month looking to fill more than 87 million seats on flights to, from and within Europe.
“While it may once have been considered something of a luxury, air travel in the 21st Century has become an economic necessity,” says Duncan Alexander, managing director Business Development at OAG. “Any move towards additional travel taxes, either at national or supranational level, seems certain to be hugely unpopular, if not commercially damaging.
“Airlines have become real experts at predicting consumer demand, and this increase is no flash in the pan, but part of an ongoing trend. The number of October flights to and from Europe may be nine per cent higher than a year ago, but it is fully 30 per cent up on October 2001.”
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 1000 scheduled airlines, on a daily basis, to give an overview of anticipated travel demand.
Within Europe, there are big differences between east and west. While the number of October flights on offer within western Europe is two per cent higher this year, there has been a 12 per cent increase in the number of flights between eastern European countries.
At a national level, aviation growth in countries such as Poland, the Baltic states and Turkey far outstrips the increases in more mature markets. The number of October flights to and from Poland, for example, is 18 per cent higher, compared with a five per cent increase for Germany and Italy, three per cent for France, and just one per cent for the UK.
Among the major world regions, air travel to and from the oil-rich Middle East is showing the biggest increase, up 15 per cent against last October. This month sees 12 per cent more flights to and from the Asia-Pacific region and 11 per cent more flights to and from Africa.
Only the Americas are bucking the global trend. The number of October flights to and from the USA and Canada is just two per cent higher than a year ago, while the number of services to and from South and Central America has actually decreased by two per cent.
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