Packed January airline schedules signal strong New Year for Americas
29 January 2007
- Canada leads Americas’ aviation growth
- US reports above-average flights increase
- Longhaul low-fare airlines make their mark
- Worldwide flights up four per cent
January 2007: Canada has emerged as the stellar New Year performer on the American aviation industry stage, with higher-than-average increases in international and domestic airline activity.
The world’s airlines scheduled more than 39,000 flights to and from Canada in January – up eight per cent over last year, and the highest January figure since 2001. Within Canada, the 62,720 domestic flights scheduled represent a nine per cent increase on the same month in 2006.
International flights to and from the US are also on the increase. January’s total of nearly 115,000 flights is a five per cent improvement over last year, while domestically it is two per cent ahead with 818,000 flights.
Latin America’s 62,000 intercontinental services and 191,000 intra-regional operations are four per cent and three per cent higher, respectively.
The figures are revealed in the latest OAG Quarterly Airline Traffic Statistics, a regular snapshot of airline activity around the world. Travel and transport company OAG collates data from more than 1000 scheduled airlines, on a daily basis, to give an overview of anticipated travel demand.
“The aviation industry has made a solid start to the New Year,” says Joe Laughlin, VP of Sales and Service for OAG Americas. “Globally, the world’s airlines have scheduled four per cent more flights this January, so internationally at least, the Americas are holding their own.
“On the domestic scene, Canada’s impressive nine per cent growth should not overshadow the States’ two per cent improvement – it may be a small increase, but it is an important one, on a much larger base figure. Hopefully this year we will begin to see better news emanating from the US air transport industry.”
In world terms, the Middle East and Africa are showing the most impressive increases in airline activity. January saw a 12 per cent growth in the number of flights to and from the Middle East, and a ten per cent increase in flights to and from Africa.
Airlines scheduled nine per cent more flights to and from the Asia-Pacific region, and eight per cent more services into and out of Europe. “Compared with January 2006, we are seeing frequency increases on transatlantic and transpacific routes from North America ,” says Laughlin.
Although January shows only a modest three per cent increase in the number of low-cost flights within both Canada and the US, the number of longer-haul budget flights is significantly higher in both cases.
The extra 932 low-fare flights to and from the US in the month represents an increase of 21 per cent, while the 532 additional budget operations into and out of Canada constitute a 57 percent increase.
Biggest growth on the low-cost scene is in flights within Asia Pacific. There were more than 22,000 additional low-fare services within the region during the month, representing a 67 per cent increase year on year.
The African low-cost sector is growing at a good rate. The number of international low-cost flights more than doubled and rose 75 per cent domestically.
Statistical Tables are available here.
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For further information about OAG (www.oag.com) please contact:
Kathy Marr at OAG
Tel: 630-515-3240 Email: kmarr@oag.com
Notes to Editors:
• Analysis on specific countries and key routes and hubs worldwide is available from OAG on request.