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\n\n
\n
","post_body":"
For many years, capacity growth between China and the United States was a symbol of globalisation, emergent markets and - most importantly - increasing trade and tourism between the two countries. The number of scheduled flights between China and the US grew rapidly between 2000 and 2019. But since the pandemic, while most markets have recovered capacity, flights scheduled between two of the world’s largest markets are yet to regain 2010 levels. Why is this, and are there any winners in this situation?
\n
Key takeaways
\n
\n
China-US scheduled flight capacity has not regained 2010 levels, even though most global markets have recovered.
\n
The 2020 reset of the bilateral air service agreement capped each side at 50 weekly flights, versus an average of 343 weekly flights in 2018. That’s a loss of 243 weekly flights.
\n
Seoul Incheon is the clear winner: China-US transit passengers rose from an estimated 218,000 in 2018 to 855,000 in 2024, a four-fold increase.
\n
\n
How did China-US air travel develop between 2000 and 2019?
\n
\n\n
\n
While there has never been an “open skies” agreement between China and the US, a series of liberalisation protocols in 2004 and 2007 had encouraged a rapid programme of air service development between the two countries, as the chart above illustrates.
\n
The initial air service agreement had been built around an even share of frequency from Chinese- and US-registered airlines but the liberalisation of the bilateral agreement in the mid-2000s was perfectly aligned with growth in international services from Chinese airlines, many of whom operated Boeing aircraft. At the time this was a positive for US authorities.
\n\n
\n
From a near 50/50 share of frequency in 2005, by 2018 Chinese airlines had increased their frequency share to nearly 60% as the number of airport pairs operated increased and secondary Chinese markets secured services. In 2005 just nine airport pairs were served and by 2018 that had increased to 45; of those 45 airport pairs, only 18 were operated by US-based carriers. Clearly, China’s airlines were expanding their networks faster and deeper than their US counterparts and leakage of traffic through those secondary Chinese hubs and routes felt like a loss of potential traffic for the US airlines.
\n
Why were US airlines frustrated by the China-US market before the pandemic?
\n
Two competitive factors further frustrated the US-based carriers at the time, one of which was impossible to solve:
\n\n
With significantly lower costs (typically 30% below those of their US competitors), Chinese airlines were able to price flights below the cost levels of the big three US airlines. This gave them a clear advantage.
\n
The second factor was slightly more abstract - US airlines reported being unable to secure the necessary slots at airports such as Beijing and Shanghai for frequency expansion, despite seemingly available capacity.
\n\n
Against such a market backdrop the 2020 pandemic provided a great opportunity to reset the bilateral agreement and return to a more equitable share of frequency. And the consequence of that reset has been dramatic.
\n
How did the pandemic change the China-US bilateral air service agreement?
\n
In light of the pandemic, the US requested a reset of the agreement, placing a limit of 50 weekly flights from both countries’ airlines; a significant reduction on the 2018 average of 343 weekly flights. Boeing has certainly lost aircraft orders because of this change in bilateral agreement, but what were the other effects?
\n
Who benefited from fewer China-US flights? Seoul Incheon's four-fold rise in transfer passengers
\n
The loss of 293 weekly flights - which is more than the weekly count of flights between London and New York - inevitably provided an opportunity for some, and in this case Seoul Incheon Airport has certainly gained.
\n
Incheon was well placed to capitalise on the loss of direct services between China and the US and has become the major hub airport in Northeast Asia . In 2018, an estimated 218,000 passengers between China and the United States connected via Incheon; in 2024 the volumes had increased four-fold to 855,000 as a combination of new destinations and increased frequency to China created an alternate route for those wishing to travel.
\n
What does this mean for the future?
\n
Decreases in US – China capacity and the related increase in passenger volume at Incheon highlight that however politics may intervene in a market, the market will react by finding alternate ways to travel between two points. In this case Incheon is the benefactor. Similarly, Istanbul has recently benefited from the loss of direct access between Europe and Russia.
\n
Ultimately, travellers will find solutions to changes in capacity very quickly, and perhaps as geopolitical situations unfold -as they always do – it is wise to take a long-sighted view of decisions made.
\n
Where can I find China-US airline schedule and capacity data?
\n
OAG Analyser+ provides independent airline schedule data, including the 7-day forward schedule, covering 900+ airlines. Explore China-US routes in OAG Analyser or contact us for API and Snowflake access.
\n\n
Recommended:
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
","tag_ids":[66382214546],"topic_ids":[66382214546],"use_featured_image":true,"html_title":"China-US Aviation Post-Pandemic: Capacity, the Bilateral Agreement and Gains for Incheon","post_summary":"
For many years, capacity growth between China and the United States was a symbol of globalisation, emergent markets and - most importantly - increasing trade and tourism between the two countries.
","rss_summary":"
For many years, capacity growth between China and the United States was a symbol of globalisation, emergent markets and - most importantly - increasing trade and tourism between the two countries.
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For many years, capacity growth between China and the United States was a symbol of globalisation, emergent markets and - most importantly - increasing trade and tourism between the two countries. The number of scheduled flights between China and the US grew rapidly between 2000 and 2019. But since the pandemic, while most markets have recovered capacity, flights scheduled between two of the world’s largest markets are yet to regain 2010 levels. Why is this, and are there any winners in this situation?
\n
Key takeaways
\n
\n
China-US scheduled flight capacity has not regained 2010 levels, even though most global markets have recovered.
\n
The 2020 reset of the bilateral air service agreement capped each side at 50 weekly flights, versus an average of 343 weekly flights in 2018. That’s a loss of 243 weekly flights.
\n
Seoul Incheon is the clear winner: China-US transit passengers rose from an estimated 218,000 in 2018 to 855,000 in 2024, a four-fold increase.
\n
\n
How did China-US air travel develop between 2000 and 2019?
\n
\n\n
\n
While there has never been an “open skies” agreement between China and the US, a series of liberalisation protocols in 2004 and 2007 had encouraged a rapid programme of air service development between the two countries, as the chart above illustrates.
\n
The initial air service agreement had been built around an even share of frequency from Chinese- and US-registered airlines but the liberalisation of the bilateral agreement in the mid-2000s was perfectly aligned with growth in international services from Chinese airlines, many of whom operated Boeing aircraft. At the time this was a positive for US authorities.
\n\n
\n
From a near 50/50 share of frequency in 2005, by 2018 Chinese airlines had increased their frequency share to nearly 60% as the number of airport pairs operated increased and secondary Chinese markets secured services. In 2005 just nine airport pairs were served and by 2018 that had increased to 45; of those 45 airport pairs, only 18 were operated by US-based carriers. Clearly, China’s airlines were expanding their networks faster and deeper than their US counterparts and leakage of traffic through those secondary Chinese hubs and routes felt like a loss of potential traffic for the US airlines.
\n
Why were US airlines frustrated by the China-US market before the pandemic?
\n
Two competitive factors further frustrated the US-based carriers at the time, one of which was impossible to solve:
\n\n
With significantly lower costs (typically 30% below those of their US competitors), Chinese airlines were able to price flights below the cost levels of the big three US airlines. This gave them a clear advantage.
\n
The second factor was slightly more abstract - US airlines reported being unable to secure the necessary slots at airports such as Beijing and Shanghai for frequency expansion, despite seemingly available capacity.
\n\n
Against such a market backdrop the 2020 pandemic provided a great opportunity to reset the bilateral agreement and return to a more equitable share of frequency. And the consequence of that reset has been dramatic.
\n
How did the pandemic change the China-US bilateral air service agreement?
\n
In light of the pandemic, the US requested a reset of the agreement, placing a limit of 50 weekly flights from both countries’ airlines; a significant reduction on the 2018 average of 343 weekly flights. Boeing has certainly lost aircraft orders because of this change in bilateral agreement, but what were the other effects?
\n
Who benefited from fewer China-US flights? Seoul Incheon's four-fold rise in transfer passengers
\n
The loss of 293 weekly flights - which is more than the weekly count of flights between London and New York - inevitably provided an opportunity for some, and in this case Seoul Incheon Airport has certainly gained.
\n
Incheon was well placed to capitalise on the loss of direct services between China and the US and has become the major hub airport in Northeast Asia . In 2018, an estimated 218,000 passengers between China and the United States connected via Incheon; in 2024 the volumes had increased four-fold to 855,000 as a combination of new destinations and increased frequency to China created an alternate route for those wishing to travel.
\n
What does this mean for the future?
\n
Decreases in US – China capacity and the related increase in passenger volume at Incheon highlight that however politics may intervene in a market, the market will react by finding alternate ways to travel between two points. In this case Incheon is the benefactor. Similarly, Istanbul has recently benefited from the loss of direct access between Europe and Russia.
\n
Ultimately, travellers will find solutions to changes in capacity very quickly, and perhaps as geopolitical situations unfold -as they always do – it is wise to take a long-sighted view of decisions made.
\n
Where can I find China-US airline schedule and capacity data?
\n
OAG Analyser+ provides independent airline schedule data, including the 7-day forward schedule, covering 900+ airlines. Explore China-US routes in OAG Analyser or contact us for API and Snowflake access.
\n\n
Recommended:
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
","postBodyRss":"
For many years, capacity growth between China and the United States was a symbol of globalisation, emergent markets and - most importantly - increasing trade and tourism between the two countries. The number of scheduled flights between China and the US grew rapidly between 2000 and 2019. But since the pandemic, while most markets have recovered capacity, flights scheduled between two of the world’s largest markets are yet to regain 2010 levels. Why is this, and are there any winners in this situation?
\n
Key takeaways
\n
\n
China-US scheduled flight capacity has not regained 2010 levels, even though most global markets have recovered.
\n
The 2020 reset of the bilateral air service agreement capped each side at 50 weekly flights, versus an average of 343 weekly flights in 2018. That’s a loss of 243 weekly flights.
\n
Seoul Incheon is the clear winner: China-US transit passengers rose from an estimated 218,000 in 2018 to 855,000 in 2024, a four-fold increase.
\n
\n
How did China-US air travel develop between 2000 and 2019?
\n
\n\n
\n
While there has never been an “open skies” agreement between China and the US, a series of liberalisation protocols in 2004 and 2007 had encouraged a rapid programme of air service development between the two countries, as the chart above illustrates.
\n
The initial air service agreement had been built around an even share of frequency from Chinese- and US-registered airlines but the liberalisation of the bilateral agreement in the mid-2000s was perfectly aligned with growth in international services from Chinese airlines, many of whom operated Boeing aircraft. At the time this was a positive for US authorities.
\n\n
\n
From a near 50/50 share of frequency in 2005, by 2018 Chinese airlines had increased their frequency share to nearly 60% as the number of airport pairs operated increased and secondary Chinese markets secured services. In 2005 just nine airport pairs were served and by 2018 that had increased to 45; of those 45 airport pairs, only 18 were operated by US-based carriers. Clearly, China’s airlines were expanding their networks faster and deeper than their US counterparts and leakage of traffic through those secondary Chinese hubs and routes felt like a loss of potential traffic for the US airlines.
\n
Why were US airlines frustrated by the China-US market before the pandemic?
\n
Two competitive factors further frustrated the US-based carriers at the time, one of which was impossible to solve:
\n\n
With significantly lower costs (typically 30% below those of their US competitors), Chinese airlines were able to price flights below the cost levels of the big three US airlines. This gave them a clear advantage.
\n
The second factor was slightly more abstract - US airlines reported being unable to secure the necessary slots at airports such as Beijing and Shanghai for frequency expansion, despite seemingly available capacity.
\n\n
Against such a market backdrop the 2020 pandemic provided a great opportunity to reset the bilateral agreement and return to a more equitable share of frequency. And the consequence of that reset has been dramatic.
\n
How did the pandemic change the China-US bilateral air service agreement?
\n
In light of the pandemic, the US requested a reset of the agreement, placing a limit of 50 weekly flights from both countries’ airlines; a significant reduction on the 2018 average of 343 weekly flights. Boeing has certainly lost aircraft orders because of this change in bilateral agreement, but what were the other effects?
\n
Who benefited from fewer China-US flights? Seoul Incheon's four-fold rise in transfer passengers
\n
The loss of 293 weekly flights - which is more than the weekly count of flights between London and New York - inevitably provided an opportunity for some, and in this case Seoul Incheon Airport has certainly gained.
\n
Incheon was well placed to capitalise on the loss of direct services between China and the US and has become the major hub airport in Northeast Asia . In 2018, an estimated 218,000 passengers between China and the United States connected via Incheon; in 2024 the volumes had increased four-fold to 855,000 as a combination of new destinations and increased frequency to China created an alternate route for those wishing to travel.
\n
What does this mean for the future?
\n
Decreases in US – China capacity and the related increase in passenger volume at Incheon highlight that however politics may intervene in a market, the market will react by finding alternate ways to travel between two points. In this case Incheon is the benefactor. Similarly, Istanbul has recently benefited from the loss of direct access between Europe and Russia.
\n
Ultimately, travellers will find solutions to changes in capacity very quickly, and perhaps as geopolitical situations unfold -as they always do – it is wise to take a long-sighted view of decisions made.
\n
Where can I find China-US airline schedule and capacity data?
\n
OAG Analyser+ provides independent airline schedule data, including the 7-day forward schedule, covering 900+ airlines. Explore China-US routes in OAG Analyser or contact us for API and Snowflake access.
\n\n
Recommended:
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
","postEmailContent":"
For many years, capacity growth between China and the United States was a symbol of globalisation, emergent markets and - most importantly - increasing trade and tourism between the two countries.
For many years, capacity growth between China and the United States was a symbol of globalisation, emergent markets and - most importantly - increasing trade and tourism between the two countries.
For many years, capacity growth between China and the United States was a symbol of globalisation, emergent markets and - most importantly - increasing trade and tourism between the two countries.
For many years, capacity growth between China and the United States was a symbol of globalisation, emergent markets and - most importantly - increasing trade and tourism between the two countries.
","postSummaryRss":"
For many years, capacity growth between China and the United States was a symbol of globalisation, emergent markets and - most importantly - increasing trade and tourism between the two countries.
","postTemplate":"OAG 2026/templates/blog/clean-pro-blog-post.html","previewImageSrc":null,"previewKey":"ztwXymeC","previousPostFeaturedImage":"https://490937.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/490937/tap-air.jpg","previousPostFeaturedImageAltText":"","previousPostName":"TAP Air Portugal & Lufthansa Stars Are Aligned","previousPostSlug":"blog/tap-air-portugal-lufthansa-stars-are-aligned","processingStatus":"PUBLISHED","propertyForDynamicPageCanonicalUrl":null,"propertyForDynamicPageFeaturedImage":null,"propertyForDynamicPageMetaDescription":null,"propertyForDynamicPageSlug":null,"propertyForDynamicPageTitle":null,"publicAccessRules":[],"publicAccessRulesEnabled":false,"publishDate":1792572651000,"publishDateLocalTime":1792572651000,"publishDateLocalized":{"date":1792572651000,"format":"dd MMMM yyyy","language":"en_GB"},"publishImmediately":true,"publishTimezoneOffset":null,"publishedAt":1792572759435,"publishedByEmail":null,"publishedById":11440745,"publishedByName":null,"publishedUrl":"https://www.oag.com/blog/china-us-aviation-post-pandemic","resolvedDomain":"www.oag.com","resolvedLanguage":null,"rssBody":"
For many years, capacity growth between China and the United States was a symbol of globalisation, emergent markets and - most importantly - increasing trade and tourism between the two countries. The number of scheduled flights between China and the US grew rapidly between 2000 and 2019. But since the pandemic, while most markets have recovered capacity, flights scheduled between two of the world’s largest markets are yet to regain 2010 levels. Why is this, and are there any winners in this situation?
\n
Key takeaways
\n
\n
China-US scheduled flight capacity has not regained 2010 levels, even though most global markets have recovered.
\n
The 2020 reset of the bilateral air service agreement capped each side at 50 weekly flights, versus an average of 343 weekly flights in 2018. That’s a loss of 243 weekly flights.
\n
Seoul Incheon is the clear winner: China-US transit passengers rose from an estimated 218,000 in 2018 to 855,000 in 2024, a four-fold increase.
\n
\n
How did China-US air travel develop between 2000 and 2019?
\n
\n\n
\n
While there has never been an “open skies” agreement between China and the US, a series of liberalisation protocols in 2004 and 2007 had encouraged a rapid programme of air service development between the two countries, as the chart above illustrates.
\n
The initial air service agreement had been built around an even share of frequency from Chinese- and US-registered airlines but the liberalisation of the bilateral agreement in the mid-2000s was perfectly aligned with growth in international services from Chinese airlines, many of whom operated Boeing aircraft. At the time this was a positive for US authorities.
\n\n
\n
From a near 50/50 share of frequency in 2005, by 2018 Chinese airlines had increased their frequency share to nearly 60% as the number of airport pairs operated increased and secondary Chinese markets secured services. In 2005 just nine airport pairs were served and by 2018 that had increased to 45; of those 45 airport pairs, only 18 were operated by US-based carriers. Clearly, China’s airlines were expanding their networks faster and deeper than their US counterparts and leakage of traffic through those secondary Chinese hubs and routes felt like a loss of potential traffic for the US airlines.
\n
Why were US airlines frustrated by the China-US market before the pandemic?
\n
Two competitive factors further frustrated the US-based carriers at the time, one of which was impossible to solve:
\n\n
With significantly lower costs (typically 30% below those of their US competitors), Chinese airlines were able to price flights below the cost levels of the big three US airlines. This gave them a clear advantage.
\n
The second factor was slightly more abstract - US airlines reported being unable to secure the necessary slots at airports such as Beijing and Shanghai for frequency expansion, despite seemingly available capacity.
\n\n
Against such a market backdrop the 2020 pandemic provided a great opportunity to reset the bilateral agreement and return to a more equitable share of frequency. And the consequence of that reset has been dramatic.
\n
How did the pandemic change the China-US bilateral air service agreement?
\n
In light of the pandemic, the US requested a reset of the agreement, placing a limit of 50 weekly flights from both countries’ airlines; a significant reduction on the 2018 average of 343 weekly flights. Boeing has certainly lost aircraft orders because of this change in bilateral agreement, but what were the other effects?
\n
Who benefited from fewer China-US flights? Seoul Incheon's four-fold rise in transfer passengers
\n
The loss of 293 weekly flights - which is more than the weekly count of flights between London and New York - inevitably provided an opportunity for some, and in this case Seoul Incheon Airport has certainly gained.
\n
Incheon was well placed to capitalise on the loss of direct services between China and the US and has become the major hub airport in Northeast Asia . In 2018, an estimated 218,000 passengers between China and the United States connected via Incheon; in 2024 the volumes had increased four-fold to 855,000 as a combination of new destinations and increased frequency to China created an alternate route for those wishing to travel.
\n
What does this mean for the future?
\n
Decreases in US – China capacity and the related increase in passenger volume at Incheon highlight that however politics may intervene in a market, the market will react by finding alternate ways to travel between two points. In this case Incheon is the benefactor. Similarly, Istanbul has recently benefited from the loss of direct access between Europe and Russia.
\n
Ultimately, travellers will find solutions to changes in capacity very quickly, and perhaps as geopolitical situations unfold -as they always do – it is wise to take a long-sighted view of decisions made.
\n
Where can I find China-US airline schedule and capacity data?
\n
OAG Analyser+ provides independent airline schedule data, including the 7-day forward schedule, covering 900+ airlines. Explore China-US routes in OAG Analyser or contact us for API and Snowflake access.
\n\n
Recommended:
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
","rssSummary":"
For many years, capacity growth between China and the United States was a symbol of globalisation, emergent markets and - most importantly - increasing trade and tourism between the two countries.
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If the Summer Season is all about revenue maximisation and aircraft utilisation, then the Winter Season is all about minimising losses and carefully matching airline capacity to passenger demand.
\n
Airlines typically scale back operations in winter, and while in Europe the ski season can be busy, the skill is to match capacity to expected demand - and easyJet has already started making some cuts from their original winter programme. When the original winter schedules launched this time last year, there was no Iran-US conflict, oil prices were low and consumer confidence was strong. Twelve months later, the market conditions are very different and airlines are responding.
In this blog, we will explore easyJet’s adjustments, but it is important to note that other European airlines are making similar changes to their winter programmes. Since the first week of September, 21 airlines have cut their winter capacity by more than 5% in response to changing market conditions, high oil prices and potentially waning consumer confidence. The table below highlights some of the largest reductions applied by ten of Europe’s major airlines in the last five weeks, the most noticeable of which is a 7.5% decrease in scheduled airline capacity from Ryanair.
\n\n
\n
European domiciled airlines, winter schedule adjustments between 7th September and 18th October 2026
\n
\n
\n \n
\n
European domiciled airline
\n
7th September 2026
\n
18th October 2026
\n
Percentage change
\n
\n \n \n
Corendon Airlines
334,989
206,946
-38.2%
\n
SmartWings
975,031
649,669
-33.4%
\n
Georgian Airways
390,764
320,902
-17.9%
\n
Loganair
948,320
797,228
-15.9%
\n
LOT - Polish Airlines
5,362,126
4,769,766
-11.0%
\n
Volotea
2,848,344
2,590,992
-9.0%
\n
Ryanair
76,778,319
71,047,827
-7.5%
\n
TUI Airways
1,585,836
1,500,285
-5.4%
\n
Air Baltic Corporation
2,307,530
2,190,080
-5.1%
\n
SAS Scandinavian Airlines
15,208,444
14,446,950
-5.0%
\n \n
\n
\n
Source: OAG Schedules Analyser
\n
\n
Using OAG's Schedules Analyser, we have compared easyJet’s scheduled capacity filed on 7th September 2026 with those filed on 18th October 2026.
\n
A Modest Three Per cent Capacity Cut
\n
easyJet stress that the planned capacity cuts amount to less than three per cent (2.8% to be precise). However, when you’re a large airline, that amounts to ~1.1 million seats, over 8,000 seats a day, or 45 flights. It is certainly not a dramatic amount of cutting, more a realignment of capacity to demand, and is exactly what every airline should be doing in these uncertain times.
\n
Which country markets are impacted by easyJet’s winter schedule capacity cuts?
\n
Across the ten largest country markets:
\n
\n
Italy has the largest reduction: - 4.1%
\n
Switzerland has the smallest reduction: -1.5 %
\n
\n
Outside of the ten largest markets:
\n
\n
Bulgaria sees the largest drop in capacity (-7.4%) which is perhaps not a surprise. easyJet have a 1% capacity share and the combined Ryanair/Wizz Air operation holds a 55% share - numbers that suggest Bulgaria is a marginal market for easyJet .
\n
On a more positive note, and clearly easyJet believe in Father Christmas, they have increased capacity by 3.7% to Finland; by carefully up-gauging some services to larger aircraft types and not increasing frequency.
\n
\n\n
\n
Largest capacity reductions at Milan Malpensa and London Luton airports
\n
easyJet’s largest market is the UK and London Gatwick airport is the largest base with ~3.5 million seats scheduled this winter, a reduction of -2.5% compared to schedules filed at the beginning of September. France is the second-largest market for easyJet, and Geneva Int’l airport has seen a smaller capacity reduction (1.5%) for the same time period.
\n
Two airports - in the top ten largest - will see capacity cut by more than 5%:
\n
\n
Milan Malpensa loses just under 90,000 seats (-5.9%).
\n
London Luton sees a drop of 66,000 seats (-5.2%).
\n
In absolute terms, Milan Malpensa and London Gatwick have the highest capacity cuts, both with a reduction of ~90,000 seats. To put that into context the cuts amount to the loss of four flights a day for Gatwick, and three fewer for Milan on average.
\n
\n
Outside of the top ten, the largest capacity reductions are at: Tangier, Strasbourg, and Derry. All of which see a capacity reduction of more than 10% for the winter.
\n\n
\n
What capacity changes are there at route level?
\n
Airport pairs with the largest capacity cuts tend to be those that were originally scheduled to be operated with a low frequency through the winter, for instance the 61.5% reduction in capacity on Naples to Luxembourg (NAP-LUX) is based on a frequency cut from twenty-six to ten flights over the season, and the 58.7% reduction on London Southend to Palma de Mallorca (SEN – PMI) will now only be operated nine times through the winter compared to the original twenty-one.
\n
Positively Southampton gains a new route in the latest schedules with a Manchester service added to the programme - although some of that frequency comes at the expense of slight cuts in service to both Barcelona and Paris.
\n\n
Making such an early set of schedule changes for the winter makes complete sense for easyJet, and prevents any potential issues of having to reaccommodate passengers from cancelled flights. It is very likely other airlines will follow suit in the next few weeks and some of those cuts could be larger than those planned by easyJet. This winter is going to be challenging for all airlines and being cautious with capacity planning now is much better than facing empty flights in February because those decisions were not made soon enough.
\n\n
Recommended:
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
","post_body":"
If the Summer Season is all about revenue maximisation and aircraft utilisation, then the Winter Season is all about minimising losses and carefully matching airline capacity to passenger demand.
\n
Airlines typically scale back operations in winter, and while in Europe the ski season can be busy, the skill is to match capacity to expected demand - and easyJet has already started making some cuts from their original winter programme. When the original winter schedules launched this time last year, there was no Iran-US conflict, oil prices were low and consumer confidence was strong. Twelve months later, the market conditions are very different and airlines are responding.
In this blog, we will explore easyJet’s adjustments, but it is important to note that other European airlines are making similar changes to their winter programmes. Since the first week of September, 21 airlines have cut their winter capacity by more than 5% in response to changing market conditions, high oil prices and potentially waning consumer confidence. The table below highlights some of the largest reductions applied by ten of Europe’s major airlines in the last five weeks, the most noticeable of which is a 7.5% decrease in scheduled airline capacity from Ryanair.
\n\n
\n
European domiciled airlines, winter schedule adjustments between 7th September and 18th October 2026
\n
\n
\n \n
\n
European domiciled airline
\n
7th September 2026
\n
18th October 2026
\n
Percentage change
\n
\n \n \n
Corendon Airlines
334,989
206,946
-38.2%
\n
SmartWings
975,031
649,669
-33.4%
\n
Georgian Airways
390,764
320,902
-17.9%
\n
Loganair
948,320
797,228
-15.9%
\n
LOT - Polish Airlines
5,362,126
4,769,766
-11.0%
\n
Volotea
2,848,344
2,590,992
-9.0%
\n
Ryanair
76,778,319
71,047,827
-7.5%
\n
TUI Airways
1,585,836
1,500,285
-5.4%
\n
Air Baltic Corporation
2,307,530
2,190,080
-5.1%
\n
SAS Scandinavian Airlines
15,208,444
14,446,950
-5.0%
\n \n
\n
\n
Source: OAG Schedules Analyser
\n
\n
Using OAG's Schedules Analyser, we have compared easyJet’s scheduled capacity filed on 7th September 2026 with those filed on 18th October 2026.
\n
A Modest Three Per cent Capacity Cut
\n
easyJet stress that the planned capacity cuts amount to less than three per cent (2.8% to be precise). However, when you’re a large airline, that amounts to ~1.1 million seats, over 8,000 seats a day, or 45 flights. It is certainly not a dramatic amount of cutting, more a realignment of capacity to demand, and is exactly what every airline should be doing in these uncertain times.
\n
Which country markets are impacted by easyJet’s winter schedule capacity cuts?
\n
Across the ten largest country markets:
\n
\n
Italy has the largest reduction: - 4.1%
\n
Switzerland has the smallest reduction: -1.5 %
\n
\n
Outside of the ten largest markets:
\n
\n
Bulgaria sees the largest drop in capacity (-7.4%) which is perhaps not a surprise. easyJet have a 1% capacity share and the combined Ryanair/Wizz Air operation holds a 55% share - numbers that suggest Bulgaria is a marginal market for easyJet .
\n
On a more positive note, and clearly easyJet believe in Father Christmas, they have increased capacity by 3.7% to Finland; by carefully up-gauging some services to larger aircraft types and not increasing frequency.
\n
\n\n
\n
Largest capacity reductions at Milan Malpensa and London Luton airports
\n
easyJet’s largest market is the UK and London Gatwick airport is the largest base with ~3.5 million seats scheduled this winter, a reduction of -2.5% compared to schedules filed at the beginning of September. France is the second-largest market for easyJet, and Geneva Int’l airport has seen a smaller capacity reduction (1.5%) for the same time period.
\n
Two airports - in the top ten largest - will see capacity cut by more than 5%:
\n
\n
Milan Malpensa loses just under 90,000 seats (-5.9%).
\n
London Luton sees a drop of 66,000 seats (-5.2%).
\n
In absolute terms, Milan Malpensa and London Gatwick have the highest capacity cuts, both with a reduction of ~90,000 seats. To put that into context the cuts amount to the loss of four flights a day for Gatwick, and three fewer for Milan on average.
\n
\n
Outside of the top ten, the largest capacity reductions are at: Tangier, Strasbourg, and Derry. All of which see a capacity reduction of more than 10% for the winter.
\n\n
\n
What capacity changes are there at route level?
\n
Airport pairs with the largest capacity cuts tend to be those that were originally scheduled to be operated with a low frequency through the winter, for instance the 61.5% reduction in capacity on Naples to Luxembourg (NAP-LUX) is based on a frequency cut from twenty-six to ten flights over the season, and the 58.7% reduction on London Southend to Palma de Mallorca (SEN – PMI) will now only be operated nine times through the winter compared to the original twenty-one.
\n
Positively Southampton gains a new route in the latest schedules with a Manchester service added to the programme - although some of that frequency comes at the expense of slight cuts in service to both Barcelona and Paris.
\n\n
Making such an early set of schedule changes for the winter makes complete sense for easyJet, and prevents any potential issues of having to reaccommodate passengers from cancelled flights. It is very likely other airlines will follow suit in the next few weeks and some of those cuts could be larger than those planned by easyJet. This winter is going to be challenging for all airlines and being cautious with capacity planning now is much better than facing empty flights in February because those decisions were not made soon enough.
\n\n
Recommended:
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
","tag_ids":[66382214546],"topic_ids":[66382214546],"use_featured_image":true,"html_title":"Cautious Capacity Cuts from easyJet for the Winter Season","post_summary":"
If the Summer Season is all about revenue maximisation and aircraft utilisation, then the Winter Season is all about minimising losses and carefully matching airline capacity to passenger demand.
\n
Airlines typically scale back operations in winter, and while in Europe the ski season can be busy, the skill is to match capacity to expected demand - and easyJet has already started making some cuts from their original winter programme.
","rss_summary":"
If the Summer Season is all about revenue maximisation and aircraft utilisation, then the Winter Season is all about minimising losses and carefully matching airline capacity to passenger demand.
\n
Airlines typically scale back operations in winter, and while in Europe the ski season can be busy, the skill is to match capacity to expected demand - and easyJet has already started making some cuts from their original winter programme.
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If the Summer Season is all about revenue maximisation and aircraft utilisation, then the Winter Season is all about minimising losses and carefully matching airline capacity to passenger demand.
\n
Airlines typically scale back operations in winter, and while in Europe the ski season can be busy, the skill is to match capacity to expected demand - and easyJet has already started making some cuts from their original winter programme. When the original winter schedules launched this time last year, there was no Iran-US conflict, oil prices were low and consumer confidence was strong. Twelve months later, the market conditions are very different and airlines are responding.
In this blog, we will explore easyJet’s adjustments, but it is important to note that other European airlines are making similar changes to their winter programmes. Since the first week of September, 21 airlines have cut their winter capacity by more than 5% in response to changing market conditions, high oil prices and potentially waning consumer confidence. The table below highlights some of the largest reductions applied by ten of Europe’s major airlines in the last five weeks, the most noticeable of which is a 7.5% decrease in scheduled airline capacity from Ryanair.
\n\n
\n
European domiciled airlines, winter schedule adjustments between 7th September and 18th October 2026
\n
\n
\n \n
\n
European domiciled airline
\n
7th September 2026
\n
18th October 2026
\n
Percentage change
\n
\n \n \n
Corendon Airlines
334,989
206,946
-38.2%
\n
SmartWings
975,031
649,669
-33.4%
\n
Georgian Airways
390,764
320,902
-17.9%
\n
Loganair
948,320
797,228
-15.9%
\n
LOT - Polish Airlines
5,362,126
4,769,766
-11.0%
\n
Volotea
2,848,344
2,590,992
-9.0%
\n
Ryanair
76,778,319
71,047,827
-7.5%
\n
TUI Airways
1,585,836
1,500,285
-5.4%
\n
Air Baltic Corporation
2,307,530
2,190,080
-5.1%
\n
SAS Scandinavian Airlines
15,208,444
14,446,950
-5.0%
\n \n
\n
\n
Source: OAG Schedules Analyser
\n
\n
Using OAG's Schedules Analyser, we have compared easyJet’s scheduled capacity filed on 7th September 2026 with those filed on 18th October 2026.
\n
A Modest Three Per cent Capacity Cut
\n
easyJet stress that the planned capacity cuts amount to less than three per cent (2.8% to be precise). However, when you’re a large airline, that amounts to ~1.1 million seats, over 8,000 seats a day, or 45 flights. It is certainly not a dramatic amount of cutting, more a realignment of capacity to demand, and is exactly what every airline should be doing in these uncertain times.
\n
Which country markets are impacted by easyJet’s winter schedule capacity cuts?
\n
Across the ten largest country markets:
\n
\n
Italy has the largest reduction: - 4.1%
\n
Switzerland has the smallest reduction: -1.5 %
\n
\n
Outside of the ten largest markets:
\n
\n
Bulgaria sees the largest drop in capacity (-7.4%) which is perhaps not a surprise. easyJet have a 1% capacity share and the combined Ryanair/Wizz Air operation holds a 55% share - numbers that suggest Bulgaria is a marginal market for easyJet .
\n
On a more positive note, and clearly easyJet believe in Father Christmas, they have increased capacity by 3.7% to Finland; by carefully up-gauging some services to larger aircraft types and not increasing frequency.
\n
\n\n
\n
Largest capacity reductions at Milan Malpensa and London Luton airports
\n
easyJet’s largest market is the UK and London Gatwick airport is the largest base with ~3.5 million seats scheduled this winter, a reduction of -2.5% compared to schedules filed at the beginning of September. France is the second-largest market for easyJet, and Geneva Int’l airport has seen a smaller capacity reduction (1.5%) for the same time period.
\n
Two airports - in the top ten largest - will see capacity cut by more than 5%:
\n
\n
Milan Malpensa loses just under 90,000 seats (-5.9%).
\n
London Luton sees a drop of 66,000 seats (-5.2%).
\n
In absolute terms, Milan Malpensa and London Gatwick have the highest capacity cuts, both with a reduction of ~90,000 seats. To put that into context the cuts amount to the loss of four flights a day for Gatwick, and three fewer for Milan on average.
\n
\n
Outside of the top ten, the largest capacity reductions are at: Tangier, Strasbourg, and Derry. All of which see a capacity reduction of more than 10% for the winter.
\n\n
\n
What capacity changes are there at route level?
\n
Airport pairs with the largest capacity cuts tend to be those that were originally scheduled to be operated with a low frequency through the winter, for instance the 61.5% reduction in capacity on Naples to Luxembourg (NAP-LUX) is based on a frequency cut from twenty-six to ten flights over the season, and the 58.7% reduction on London Southend to Palma de Mallorca (SEN – PMI) will now only be operated nine times through the winter compared to the original twenty-one.
\n
Positively Southampton gains a new route in the latest schedules with a Manchester service added to the programme - although some of that frequency comes at the expense of slight cuts in service to both Barcelona and Paris.
\n\n
Making such an early set of schedule changes for the winter makes complete sense for easyJet, and prevents any potential issues of having to reaccommodate passengers from cancelled flights. It is very likely other airlines will follow suit in the next few weeks and some of those cuts could be larger than those planned by easyJet. This winter is going to be challenging for all airlines and being cautious with capacity planning now is much better than facing empty flights in February because those decisions were not made soon enough.
\n\n
Recommended:
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
","postBodyRss":"
If the Summer Season is all about revenue maximisation and aircraft utilisation, then the Winter Season is all about minimising losses and carefully matching airline capacity to passenger demand.
\n
Airlines typically scale back operations in winter, and while in Europe the ski season can be busy, the skill is to match capacity to expected demand - and easyJet has already started making some cuts from their original winter programme. When the original winter schedules launched this time last year, there was no Iran-US conflict, oil prices were low and consumer confidence was strong. Twelve months later, the market conditions are very different and airlines are responding.
In this blog, we will explore easyJet’s adjustments, but it is important to note that other European airlines are making similar changes to their winter programmes. Since the first week of September, 21 airlines have cut their winter capacity by more than 5% in response to changing market conditions, high oil prices and potentially waning consumer confidence. The table below highlights some of the largest reductions applied by ten of Europe’s major airlines in the last five weeks, the most noticeable of which is a 7.5% decrease in scheduled airline capacity from Ryanair.
\n\n
\n
European domiciled airlines, winter schedule adjustments between 7th September and 18th October 2026
\n
\n
\n \n
\n
European domiciled airline
\n
7th September 2026
\n
18th October 2026
\n
Percentage change
\n
\n \n \n
Corendon Airlines
334,989
206,946
-38.2%
\n
SmartWings
975,031
649,669
-33.4%
\n
Georgian Airways
390,764
320,902
-17.9%
\n
Loganair
948,320
797,228
-15.9%
\n
LOT - Polish Airlines
5,362,126
4,769,766
-11.0%
\n
Volotea
2,848,344
2,590,992
-9.0%
\n
Ryanair
76,778,319
71,047,827
-7.5%
\n
TUI Airways
1,585,836
1,500,285
-5.4%
\n
Air Baltic Corporation
2,307,530
2,190,080
-5.1%
\n
SAS Scandinavian Airlines
15,208,444
14,446,950
-5.0%
\n \n
\n
\n
Source: OAG Schedules Analyser
\n
\n
Using OAG's Schedules Analyser, we have compared easyJet’s scheduled capacity filed on 7th September 2026 with those filed on 18th October 2026.
\n
A Modest Three Per cent Capacity Cut
\n
easyJet stress that the planned capacity cuts amount to less than three per cent (2.8% to be precise). However, when you’re a large airline, that amounts to ~1.1 million seats, over 8,000 seats a day, or 45 flights. It is certainly not a dramatic amount of cutting, more a realignment of capacity to demand, and is exactly what every airline should be doing in these uncertain times.
\n
Which country markets are impacted by easyJet’s winter schedule capacity cuts?
\n
Across the ten largest country markets:
\n
\n
Italy has the largest reduction: - 4.1%
\n
Switzerland has the smallest reduction: -1.5 %
\n
\n
Outside of the ten largest markets:
\n
\n
Bulgaria sees the largest drop in capacity (-7.4%) which is perhaps not a surprise. easyJet have a 1% capacity share and the combined Ryanair/Wizz Air operation holds a 55% share - numbers that suggest Bulgaria is a marginal market for easyJet .
\n
On a more positive note, and clearly easyJet believe in Father Christmas, they have increased capacity by 3.7% to Finland; by carefully up-gauging some services to larger aircraft types and not increasing frequency.
\n
\n\n
\n
Largest capacity reductions at Milan Malpensa and London Luton airports
\n
easyJet’s largest market is the UK and London Gatwick airport is the largest base with ~3.5 million seats scheduled this winter, a reduction of -2.5% compared to schedules filed at the beginning of September. France is the second-largest market for easyJet, and Geneva Int’l airport has seen a smaller capacity reduction (1.5%) for the same time period.
\n
Two airports - in the top ten largest - will see capacity cut by more than 5%:
\n
\n
Milan Malpensa loses just under 90,000 seats (-5.9%).
\n
London Luton sees a drop of 66,000 seats (-5.2%).
\n
In absolute terms, Milan Malpensa and London Gatwick have the highest capacity cuts, both with a reduction of ~90,000 seats. To put that into context the cuts amount to the loss of four flights a day for Gatwick, and three fewer for Milan on average.
\n
\n
Outside of the top ten, the largest capacity reductions are at: Tangier, Strasbourg, and Derry. All of which see a capacity reduction of more than 10% for the winter.
\n\n
\n
What capacity changes are there at route level?
\n
Airport pairs with the largest capacity cuts tend to be those that were originally scheduled to be operated with a low frequency through the winter, for instance the 61.5% reduction in capacity on Naples to Luxembourg (NAP-LUX) is based on a frequency cut from twenty-six to ten flights over the season, and the 58.7% reduction on London Southend to Palma de Mallorca (SEN – PMI) will now only be operated nine times through the winter compared to the original twenty-one.
\n
Positively Southampton gains a new route in the latest schedules with a Manchester service added to the programme - although some of that frequency comes at the expense of slight cuts in service to both Barcelona and Paris.
\n\n
Making such an early set of schedule changes for the winter makes complete sense for easyJet, and prevents any potential issues of having to reaccommodate passengers from cancelled flights. It is very likely other airlines will follow suit in the next few weeks and some of those cuts could be larger than those planned by easyJet. This winter is going to be challenging for all airlines and being cautious with capacity planning now is much better than facing empty flights in February because those decisions were not made soon enough.
\n\n
Recommended:
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
","postEmailContent":"
If the Summer Season is all about revenue maximisation and aircraft utilisation, then the Winter Season is all about minimising losses and carefully matching airline capacity to passenger demand.
\n
Airlines typically scale back operations in winter, and while in Europe the ski season can be busy, the skill is to match capacity to expected demand - and easyJet has already started making some cuts from their original winter programme.
If the Summer Season is all about revenue maximisation and aircraft utilisation, then the Winter Season is all about minimising losses and carefully matching airline capacity to passenger demand.
\n
Airlines typically scale back operations in winter, and while in Europe the ski season can be busy, the skill is to match capacity to expected demand - and easyJet has already started making some cuts from their original winter programme.
If the Summer Season is all about revenue maximisation and aircraft utilisation, then the Winter Season is all about minimising losses and carefully matching airline capacity to passenger demand.
\n
Airlines typically scale back operations in winter, and while in Europe the ski season can be busy, the skill is to match capacity to expected demand - and easyJet has already started making some cuts from their original winter programme.
If the Summer Season is all about revenue maximisation and aircraft utilisation, then the Winter Season is all about minimising losses and carefully matching airline capacity to passenger demand.
\n
Airlines typically scale back operations in winter, and while in Europe the ski season can be busy, the skill is to match capacity to expected demand - and easyJet has already started making some cuts from their original winter programme.
","postSummaryRss":"
If the Summer Season is all about revenue maximisation and aircraft utilisation, then the Winter Season is all about minimising losses and carefully matching airline capacity to passenger demand.
\n
Airlines typically scale back operations in winter, and while in Europe the ski season can be busy, the skill is to match capacity to expected demand - and easyJet has already started making some cuts from their original winter programme.
If the Summer Season is all about revenue maximisation and aircraft utilisation, then the Winter Season is all about minimising losses and carefully matching airline capacity to passenger demand.
\n
Airlines typically scale back operations in winter, and while in Europe the ski season can be busy, the skill is to match capacity to expected demand - and easyJet has already started making some cuts from their original winter programme. When the original winter schedules launched this time last year, there was no Iran-US conflict, oil prices were low and consumer confidence was strong. Twelve months later, the market conditions are very different and airlines are responding.
In this blog, we will explore easyJet’s adjustments, but it is important to note that other European airlines are making similar changes to their winter programmes. Since the first week of September, 21 airlines have cut their winter capacity by more than 5% in response to changing market conditions, high oil prices and potentially waning consumer confidence. The table below highlights some of the largest reductions applied by ten of Europe’s major airlines in the last five weeks, the most noticeable of which is a 7.5% decrease in scheduled airline capacity from Ryanair.
\n\n
\n
European domiciled airlines, winter schedule adjustments between 7th September and 18th October 2026
\n
\n
\n \n
\n
European domiciled airline
\n
7th September 2026
\n
18th October 2026
\n
Percentage change
\n
\n \n \n
Corendon Airlines
334,989
206,946
-38.2%
\n
SmartWings
975,031
649,669
-33.4%
\n
Georgian Airways
390,764
320,902
-17.9%
\n
Loganair
948,320
797,228
-15.9%
\n
LOT - Polish Airlines
5,362,126
4,769,766
-11.0%
\n
Volotea
2,848,344
2,590,992
-9.0%
\n
Ryanair
76,778,319
71,047,827
-7.5%
\n
TUI Airways
1,585,836
1,500,285
-5.4%
\n
Air Baltic Corporation
2,307,530
2,190,080
-5.1%
\n
SAS Scandinavian Airlines
15,208,444
14,446,950
-5.0%
\n \n
\n
\n
Source: OAG Schedules Analyser
\n
\n
Using OAG's Schedules Analyser, we have compared easyJet’s scheduled capacity filed on 7th September 2026 with those filed on 18th October 2026.
\n
A Modest Three Per cent Capacity Cut
\n
easyJet stress that the planned capacity cuts amount to less than three per cent (2.8% to be precise). However, when you’re a large airline, that amounts to ~1.1 million seats, over 8,000 seats a day, or 45 flights. It is certainly not a dramatic amount of cutting, more a realignment of capacity to demand, and is exactly what every airline should be doing in these uncertain times.
\n
Which country markets are impacted by easyJet’s winter schedule capacity cuts?
\n
Across the ten largest country markets:
\n
\n
Italy has the largest reduction: - 4.1%
\n
Switzerland has the smallest reduction: -1.5 %
\n
\n
Outside of the ten largest markets:
\n
\n
Bulgaria sees the largest drop in capacity (-7.4%) which is perhaps not a surprise. easyJet have a 1% capacity share and the combined Ryanair/Wizz Air operation holds a 55% share - numbers that suggest Bulgaria is a marginal market for easyJet .
\n
On a more positive note, and clearly easyJet believe in Father Christmas, they have increased capacity by 3.7% to Finland; by carefully up-gauging some services to larger aircraft types and not increasing frequency.
\n
\n\n
\n
Largest capacity reductions at Milan Malpensa and London Luton airports
\n
easyJet’s largest market is the UK and London Gatwick airport is the largest base with ~3.5 million seats scheduled this winter, a reduction of -2.5% compared to schedules filed at the beginning of September. France is the second-largest market for easyJet, and Geneva Int’l airport has seen a smaller capacity reduction (1.5%) for the same time period.
\n
Two airports - in the top ten largest - will see capacity cut by more than 5%:
\n
\n
Milan Malpensa loses just under 90,000 seats (-5.9%).
\n
London Luton sees a drop of 66,000 seats (-5.2%).
\n
In absolute terms, Milan Malpensa and London Gatwick have the highest capacity cuts, both with a reduction of ~90,000 seats. To put that into context the cuts amount to the loss of four flights a day for Gatwick, and three fewer for Milan on average.
\n
\n
Outside of the top ten, the largest capacity reductions are at: Tangier, Strasbourg, and Derry. All of which see a capacity reduction of more than 10% for the winter.
\n\n
\n
What capacity changes are there at route level?
\n
Airport pairs with the largest capacity cuts tend to be those that were originally scheduled to be operated with a low frequency through the winter, for instance the 61.5% reduction in capacity on Naples to Luxembourg (NAP-LUX) is based on a frequency cut from twenty-six to ten flights over the season, and the 58.7% reduction on London Southend to Palma de Mallorca (SEN – PMI) will now only be operated nine times through the winter compared to the original twenty-one.
\n
Positively Southampton gains a new route in the latest schedules with a Manchester service added to the programme - although some of that frequency comes at the expense of slight cuts in service to both Barcelona and Paris.
\n\n
Making such an early set of schedule changes for the winter makes complete sense for easyJet, and prevents any potential issues of having to reaccommodate passengers from cancelled flights. It is very likely other airlines will follow suit in the next few weeks and some of those cuts could be larger than those planned by easyJet. This winter is going to be challenging for all airlines and being cautious with capacity planning now is much better than facing empty flights in February because those decisions were not made soon enough.
\n\n
Recommended:
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
","rssSummary":"
If the Summer Season is all about revenue maximisation and aircraft utilisation, then the Winter Season is all about minimising losses and carefully matching airline capacity to passenger demand.
\n
Airlines typically scale back operations in winter, and while in Europe the ski season can be busy, the skill is to match capacity to expected demand - and easyJet has already started making some cuts from their original winter programme.
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One of the longest-running airline privatisation processes has finally been concluded, with Lufthansa Group emerging as the preferred bidder for TAP Air Portugal with a cash offer of € 1.2 billion for a 44.9% minority share of the airline. It might seem a high price to pay for a minority stake in an airline group where parts of the leading airline are still struggling to recover long after the global pandemic five years ago. But how does this acquisition alter the European aviation landscape, if indeed it does?
\n
Adding To the Lufthansa Group
\n
At a simple level, acquiring TAP Air Portugal adds another European airline to the group, and collectively the new group now holds a 9.5% share of all European capacity, compared to the current 8.4%. So while it adjusts capacity share, it is certainlynot a significant change.
\n
Within the group, the newly adjusted capacity shares see Lufthansa’s share slipping back to 40.6%, although they remain the largest carrier with nearly three times the capacity of second-placed SWISS. TAP Air Portugal and ITA Airways both hold a 12% capacity share, slightly behind the 13% share that Austrian Airlines holds.
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n
\n \n
Current capacity share of Lufthansa Group airlines, 2026
\n
Group share of European capacity: 8.4%
\n
\n \n
\n \n\n \n
Future capacity share including TAP Air Portugal, 2026
\n
Group share of European capacity: 9.5%
\n
\n \n
\n \n
\n\n
\n
Source: OAG Analyser, scheduled seat capacity from Europe, 2026.
\n
\n\n\n
\n
\n
More strategically, TAP Air Portugal provides a position for the group on the western edges of Europe and a “bridge” to Latin America, or more specifically Brazil.
\n
TAP holds a 24% share of all capacity from Europe to Brazil, behind only LATAM. TAP’s strength has always been the Europe to Brazil market, and for Lufthansa the addition of the leading carrier in that market gives the group a 36% share of Europe to Brazil capacity.
\n
A Defensive Position In Lisbon
\n
There's no clear conclusion to be drawn yet about a new airport in Lisbon, with no nope of this happening until at least 2034 and the planning application not expected until 2028. The current facility at Portela is at capacity and TAP naturally have the largest share of 49% of scheduled flights at Lisbon. The enlarged group will hold a 52.5% share.
\n
No Change To Alliance Structures
\n
When it comes to global alliances, acceptance of the Lufthansa Group's offer means no changes and avoids the movement of a carrier from one alliance to another.
\n
Star Alliance holds a 52.7% share of Lisbon capacity, some ten times larger than SkyTeam, while OneWorld have a 4% share of the capacity. TAP holds an 87% capacity share of the Star Alliance presence in Lisbon.
\n
And Limited Scope for Network Expansion
\n
Airline acquisitions are frequently built on the potential for cost and operational benefits, and this would seem to be the case here.
\n
TAP Air Portugal exclusively fly Airbus aircraft while Lufthansa’s fleet is 83% Airbus, ITA Airways are also a 100% Airbus client, and SWISS are a majority operator of the manufacturer’s equipment. All of which could allow for significant cross-use of resources and knowledge sharing.
\n
Ultimately, the pursuit of TAP Air Portugal was a two-horse race once IAG were out of the picture. Air France/KLM will obviously be disappointed at the outcome, but only time will tell how disappointed; achieving the cost and network efficiencies that are part of the due diligence process can be time-consuming and frequently fail to deliver on the initial promises. Time will tell and we will be following with interest.
One of the longest-running airline privatisation processes has finally been concluded, with Lufthansa Group emerging as the preferred bidder for TAP Air Portugal with a cash offer of € 1.2 billion for a 44.9% minority share of the airline. It might seem a high price to pay for a minority stake in an airline group where parts of the leading airline are still struggling to recover long after the global pandemic five years ago. But how does this acquisition alter the European aviation landscape, if indeed it does?
\n
Adding To the Lufthansa Group
\n
At a simple level, acquiring TAP Air Portugal adds another European airline to the group, and collectively the new group now holds a 9.5% share of all European capacity, compared to the current 8.4%. So while it adjusts capacity share, it is certainlynot a significant change.
\n
Within the group, the newly adjusted capacity shares see Lufthansa’s share slipping back to 40.6%, although they remain the largest carrier with nearly three times the capacity of second-placed SWISS. TAP Air Portugal and ITA Airways both hold a 12% capacity share, slightly behind the 13% share that Austrian Airlines holds.
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n
\n \n
Current capacity share of Lufthansa Group airlines, 2026
\n
Group share of European capacity: 8.4%
\n
\n \n
\n \n\n \n
Future capacity share including TAP Air Portugal, 2026
\n
Group share of European capacity: 9.5%
\n
\n \n
\n \n
\n\n
\n
Source: OAG Analyser, scheduled seat capacity from Europe, 2026.
\n
\n\n\n
\n
\n
More strategically, TAP Air Portugal provides a position for the group on the western edges of Europe and a “bridge” to Latin America, or more specifically Brazil.
\n
TAP holds a 24% share of all capacity from Europe to Brazil, behind only LATAM. TAP’s strength has always been the Europe to Brazil market, and for Lufthansa the addition of the leading carrier in that market gives the group a 36% share of Europe to Brazil capacity.
\n
A Defensive Position In Lisbon
\n
There's no clear conclusion to be drawn yet about a new airport in Lisbon, with no nope of this happening until at least 2034 and the planning application not expected until 2028. The current facility at Portela is at capacity and TAP naturally have the largest share of 49% of scheduled flights at Lisbon. The enlarged group will hold a 52.5% share.
\n
No Change To Alliance Structures
\n
When it comes to global alliances, acceptance of the Lufthansa Group's offer means no changes and avoids the movement of a carrier from one alliance to another.
\n
Star Alliance holds a 52.7% share of Lisbon capacity, some ten times larger than SkyTeam, while OneWorld have a 4% share of the capacity. TAP holds an 87% capacity share of the Star Alliance presence in Lisbon.
\n
And Limited Scope for Network Expansion
\n
Airline acquisitions are frequently built on the potential for cost and operational benefits, and this would seem to be the case here.
\n
TAP Air Portugal exclusively fly Airbus aircraft while Lufthansa’s fleet is 83% Airbus, ITA Airways are also a 100% Airbus client, and SWISS are a majority operator of the manufacturer’s equipment. All of which could allow for significant cross-use of resources and knowledge sharing.
\n
Ultimately, the pursuit of TAP Air Portugal was a two-horse race once IAG were out of the picture. Air France/KLM will obviously be disappointed at the outcome, but only time will tell how disappointed; achieving the cost and network efficiencies that are part of the due diligence process can be time-consuming and frequently fail to deliver on the initial promises. Time will tell and we will be following with interest.
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One of the longest-running airline privatisation processes has finally been concluded, with Lufthansa Group emerging as the preferred bidder for TAP Air Portugal with a cash offer of € 1.2 billion for a 44.9% minority share of the airline.
","rss_summary":"
One of the longest-running airline privatisation processes has finally been concluded, with Lufthansa Group emerging as the preferred bidder for TAP Air Portugal with a cash offer of € 1.2 billion for a 44.9% minority share of the airline.
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One of the longest-running airline privatisation processes has finally been concluded, with Lufthansa Group emerging as the preferred bidder for TAP Air Portugal with a cash offer of € 1.2 billion for a 44.9% minority share of the airline. It might seem a high price to pay for a minority stake in an airline group where parts of the leading airline are still struggling to recover long after the global pandemic five years ago. But how does this acquisition alter the European aviation landscape, if indeed it does?
\n
Adding To the Lufthansa Group
\n
At a simple level, acquiring TAP Air Portugal adds another European airline to the group, and collectively the new group now holds a 9.5% share of all European capacity, compared to the current 8.4%. So while it adjusts capacity share, it is certainlynot a significant change.
\n
Within the group, the newly adjusted capacity shares see Lufthansa’s share slipping back to 40.6%, although they remain the largest carrier with nearly three times the capacity of second-placed SWISS. TAP Air Portugal and ITA Airways both hold a 12% capacity share, slightly behind the 13% share that Austrian Airlines holds.
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n
\n \n
Current capacity share of Lufthansa Group airlines, 2026
\n
Group share of European capacity: 8.4%
\n
\n \n
\n \n\n \n
Future capacity share including TAP Air Portugal, 2026
\n
Group share of European capacity: 9.5%
\n
\n \n
\n \n
\n\n
\n
Source: OAG Analyser, scheduled seat capacity from Europe, 2026.
\n
\n\n\n
\n
\n
More strategically, TAP Air Portugal provides a position for the group on the western edges of Europe and a “bridge” to Latin America, or more specifically Brazil.
\n
TAP holds a 24% share of all capacity from Europe to Brazil, behind only LATAM. TAP’s strength has always been the Europe to Brazil market, and for Lufthansa the addition of the leading carrier in that market gives the group a 36% share of Europe to Brazil capacity.
\n
A Defensive Position In Lisbon
\n
There's no clear conclusion to be drawn yet about a new airport in Lisbon, with no nope of this happening until at least 2034 and the planning application not expected until 2028. The current facility at Portela is at capacity and TAP naturally have the largest share of 49% of scheduled flights at Lisbon. The enlarged group will hold a 52.5% share.
\n
No Change To Alliance Structures
\n
When it comes to global alliances, acceptance of the Lufthansa Group's offer means no changes and avoids the movement of a carrier from one alliance to another.
\n
Star Alliance holds a 52.7% share of Lisbon capacity, some ten times larger than SkyTeam, while OneWorld have a 4% share of the capacity. TAP holds an 87% capacity share of the Star Alliance presence in Lisbon.
\n
And Limited Scope for Network Expansion
\n
Airline acquisitions are frequently built on the potential for cost and operational benefits, and this would seem to be the case here.
\n
TAP Air Portugal exclusively fly Airbus aircraft while Lufthansa’s fleet is 83% Airbus, ITA Airways are also a 100% Airbus client, and SWISS are a majority operator of the manufacturer’s equipment. All of which could allow for significant cross-use of resources and knowledge sharing.
\n
Ultimately, the pursuit of TAP Air Portugal was a two-horse race once IAG were out of the picture. Air France/KLM will obviously be disappointed at the outcome, but only time will tell how disappointed; achieving the cost and network efficiencies that are part of the due diligence process can be time-consuming and frequently fail to deliver on the initial promises. Time will tell and we will be following with interest.
One of the longest-running airline privatisation processes has finally been concluded, with Lufthansa Group emerging as the preferred bidder for TAP Air Portugal with a cash offer of € 1.2 billion for a 44.9% minority share of the airline. It might seem a high price to pay for a minority stake in an airline group where parts of the leading airline are still struggling to recover long after the global pandemic five years ago. But how does this acquisition alter the European aviation landscape, if indeed it does?
\n
Adding To the Lufthansa Group
\n
At a simple level, acquiring TAP Air Portugal adds another European airline to the group, and collectively the new group now holds a 9.5% share of all European capacity, compared to the current 8.4%. So while it adjusts capacity share, it is certainlynot a significant change.
\n
Within the group, the newly adjusted capacity shares see Lufthansa’s share slipping back to 40.6%, although they remain the largest carrier with nearly three times the capacity of second-placed SWISS. TAP Air Portugal and ITA Airways both hold a 12% capacity share, slightly behind the 13% share that Austrian Airlines holds.
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n
\n \n
Current capacity share of Lufthansa Group airlines, 2026
\n
Group share of European capacity: 8.4%
\n
\n \n
\n \n\n \n
Future capacity share including TAP Air Portugal, 2026
\n
Group share of European capacity: 9.5%
\n
\n \n
\n \n
\n\n
\n
Source: OAG Analyser, scheduled seat capacity from Europe, 2026.
\n
\n\n\n
\n
\n
More strategically, TAP Air Portugal provides a position for the group on the western edges of Europe and a “bridge” to Latin America, or more specifically Brazil.
\n
TAP holds a 24% share of all capacity from Europe to Brazil, behind only LATAM. TAP’s strength has always been the Europe to Brazil market, and for Lufthansa the addition of the leading carrier in that market gives the group a 36% share of Europe to Brazil capacity.
\n
A Defensive Position In Lisbon
\n
There's no clear conclusion to be drawn yet about a new airport in Lisbon, with no nope of this happening until at least 2034 and the planning application not expected until 2028. The current facility at Portela is at capacity and TAP naturally have the largest share of 49% of scheduled flights at Lisbon. The enlarged group will hold a 52.5% share.
\n
No Change To Alliance Structures
\n
When it comes to global alliances, acceptance of the Lufthansa Group's offer means no changes and avoids the movement of a carrier from one alliance to another.
\n
Star Alliance holds a 52.7% share of Lisbon capacity, some ten times larger than SkyTeam, while OneWorld have a 4% share of the capacity. TAP holds an 87% capacity share of the Star Alliance presence in Lisbon.
\n
And Limited Scope for Network Expansion
\n
Airline acquisitions are frequently built on the potential for cost and operational benefits, and this would seem to be the case here.
\n
TAP Air Portugal exclusively fly Airbus aircraft while Lufthansa’s fleet is 83% Airbus, ITA Airways are also a 100% Airbus client, and SWISS are a majority operator of the manufacturer’s equipment. All of which could allow for significant cross-use of resources and knowledge sharing.
\n
Ultimately, the pursuit of TAP Air Portugal was a two-horse race once IAG were out of the picture. Air France/KLM will obviously be disappointed at the outcome, but only time will tell how disappointed; achieving the cost and network efficiencies that are part of the due diligence process can be time-consuming and frequently fail to deliver on the initial promises. Time will tell and we will be following with interest.
One of the longest-running airline privatisation processes has finally been concluded, with Lufthansa Group emerging as the preferred bidder for TAP Air Portugal with a cash offer of € 1.2 billion for a 44.9% minority share of the airline.
One of the longest-running airline privatisation processes has finally been concluded, with Lufthansa Group emerging as the preferred bidder for TAP Air Portugal with a cash offer of € 1.2 billion for a 44.9% minority share of the airline.
One of the longest-running airline privatisation processes has finally been concluded, with Lufthansa Group emerging as the preferred bidder for TAP Air Portugal with a cash offer of € 1.2 billion for a 44.9% minority share of the airline.
One of the longest-running airline privatisation processes has finally been concluded, with Lufthansa Group emerging as the preferred bidder for TAP Air Portugal with a cash offer of € 1.2 billion for a 44.9% minority share of the airline.
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One of the longest-running airline privatisation processes has finally been concluded, with Lufthansa Group emerging as the preferred bidder for TAP Air Portugal with a cash offer of € 1.2 billion for a 44.9% minority share of the airline.
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One of the longest-running airline privatisation processes has finally been concluded, with Lufthansa Group emerging as the preferred bidder for TAP Air Portugal with a cash offer of € 1.2 billion for a 44.9% minority share of the airline. It might seem a high price to pay for a minority stake in an airline group where parts of the leading airline are still struggling to recover long after the global pandemic five years ago. But how does this acquisition alter the European aviation landscape, if indeed it does?
\n
Adding To the Lufthansa Group
\n
At a simple level, acquiring TAP Air Portugal adds another European airline to the group, and collectively the new group now holds a 9.5% share of all European capacity, compared to the current 8.4%. So while it adjusts capacity share, it is certainlynot a significant change.
\n
Within the group, the newly adjusted capacity shares see Lufthansa’s share slipping back to 40.6%, although they remain the largest carrier with nearly three times the capacity of second-placed SWISS. TAP Air Portugal and ITA Airways both hold a 12% capacity share, slightly behind the 13% share that Austrian Airlines holds.
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n
\n \n
Current capacity share of Lufthansa Group airlines, 2026
\n
Group share of European capacity: 8.4%
\n
\n \n
\n \n\n \n
Future capacity share including TAP Air Portugal, 2026
\n
Group share of European capacity: 9.5%
\n
\n \n
\n \n
\n\n
\n
Source: OAG Analyser, scheduled seat capacity from Europe, 2026.
\n
\n\n\n
\n
\n
More strategically, TAP Air Portugal provides a position for the group on the western edges of Europe and a “bridge” to Latin America, or more specifically Brazil.
\n
TAP holds a 24% share of all capacity from Europe to Brazil, behind only LATAM. TAP’s strength has always been the Europe to Brazil market, and for Lufthansa the addition of the leading carrier in that market gives the group a 36% share of Europe to Brazil capacity.
\n
A Defensive Position In Lisbon
\n
There's no clear conclusion to be drawn yet about a new airport in Lisbon, with no nope of this happening until at least 2034 and the planning application not expected until 2028. The current facility at Portela is at capacity and TAP naturally have the largest share of 49% of scheduled flights at Lisbon. The enlarged group will hold a 52.5% share.
\n
No Change To Alliance Structures
\n
When it comes to global alliances, acceptance of the Lufthansa Group's offer means no changes and avoids the movement of a carrier from one alliance to another.
\n
Star Alliance holds a 52.7% share of Lisbon capacity, some ten times larger than SkyTeam, while OneWorld have a 4% share of the capacity. TAP holds an 87% capacity share of the Star Alliance presence in Lisbon.
\n
And Limited Scope for Network Expansion
\n
Airline acquisitions are frequently built on the potential for cost and operational benefits, and this would seem to be the case here.
\n
TAP Air Portugal exclusively fly Airbus aircraft while Lufthansa’s fleet is 83% Airbus, ITA Airways are also a 100% Airbus client, and SWISS are a majority operator of the manufacturer’s equipment. All of which could allow for significant cross-use of resources and knowledge sharing.
\n
Ultimately, the pursuit of TAP Air Portugal was a two-horse race once IAG were out of the picture. Air France/KLM will obviously be disappointed at the outcome, but only time will tell how disappointed; achieving the cost and network efficiencies that are part of the due diligence process can be time-consuming and frequently fail to deliver on the initial promises. Time will tell and we will be following with interest.
One of the longest-running airline privatisation processes has finally been concluded, with Lufthansa Group emerging as the preferred bidder for TAP Air Portugal with a cash offer of € 1.2 billion for a 44.9% minority share of the airline.
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2026 Airline Tech Innovations: AI Takes Over The Waiting","id":224371489610,"includeDefaultCustomCss":null,"isCaptchaRequired":false,"isCrawlableByBots":false,"isDraft":false,"isInstantEmailEnabled":true,"isPublished":true,"isSocialPublishingEnabled":false,"isStagedPage":false,"keywords":[],"label":"October 2026: Airline Tech Takes Over The Waiting","language":"en-gb","lastEditSessionId":null,"lastEditUpdateId":null,"layoutSections":{},"legacyBlogTabid":null,"legacyId":null,"legacyPostGuid":null,"linkRelCanonicalUrl":"","listTemplate":"generated_layouts/66381677173.html","liveDomain":"www.oag.com","mab":false,"mabExperimentId":null,"mabMaster":false,"mabVariant":false,"marketingCampaignGuids":[],"meta":{"rss_body":"
Welcome back to the OAG Airline-Tech Innovation Radar, where each month we cut through the noise and spotlight three real-world product launches moving the aviation industry forward from a tech and innovation point of view.
\n
Last month, in Airline Tech Puts a Price on Memory, we looked at how AI is starting to learn the way an airline actually works, whether by buying an airline’s institutional record, embedding a hyperscaler’s models into operations, or letting an agent resolve overbooking before passengers reach the gate.
\n
This month, we turn to something every traveller knows very well: waiting.
\n
\n
Some of it happens at the airport, of course. But much of the more tiring waiting happens earlier and less visibly, while travellers are still trying to make sense of their flight options, compare offers, understand what is worth booking, or wait for the system to turn uncertainty into a clear next step.
\n
Disrupted passengers know this feeling especially well when the journey is already broken, but the alternative hasn't appeared yet.
\n
Airlines and controllers know a version of it too, especially on difficult operating days, when network pressure builds faster than the system can respond.
\n
\n
That is the thesis behind this October edition:
\n
The most interesting launches of the past few weeks moved the job of watching, comparing, and waiting away from people and onto software.
\n
In each case, a system now keeps an eye on something that used to require human patience. The result is a shift from reacting late to acting earlier.
\n
\n
Innovation #1: Meta’s Muse turns a wave of personal agents into a flight checkout
\n
If one thing defined the past few weeks in AI, it was the sheer number of personal agent launches. They arrived almost back-to-back, and travel kept turning up as one of the use cases:
\n
\n
Instinct, a text-message-based agent that went viral for rebooking flights, applying airline credits, and holding seat assignments over SMS and WhatsApp, closed a $250 million funding round just a few months after launch.
\n
SpaceXAI’s Grok Bot went after workplace tasks and passed 418,000 weekly users within its first month.
\n
Amadeus and Anthropic announced a toolkit that puts Amadeus flight and destination content inside Claude Code, plus a Claude Cowork plugin for travel professionals.
\n
OpenAI closed the run at its developer conference with Dots, always-on agents that keep working towards a goal after the user closes ChatGPT.
\n
\n
In the middle of all this, Meta launched Muse, a personal AI agent available in the US through its own app, WhatsApp, and muse.ai.
\n
Of all these launches, it is the one that sells a flight today, which is why it leads this edition.
\n
Here’s how it works:
\n
\n
A traveller describes the trip in plain language in the Muse app, on WhatsApp or on the web, and the agent searches live options.
\n
For flights, Muse connects to Duffel, the London-based flight API and travel infrastructure company, which gives it live inventory and pricing from more than 500 airlines. Through Duffel, travellers can book, cancel and manage trips, with 24/7 human support behind the agent.
\n
Payment runs through Stripe Link with one-time virtual cards, and the traveller approves every purchase before it completes.
\n
Muse can also drive an airline’s own website in a browser, with the traveller handling logins and approvals. Hotels currently work only this way, where the agent shops consumer sites such as Expedia and Hotels.com, much like a person with several tabs open.
\n
\n
Why does this innovation stand out so much?
\n
First, Muse moves agentic flight booking from the future tense into the present. In AI Stops Talking and Starts Transacting, we covered Mindtrip, Sabre and PayPal closing the agentic loop inside a travel-native product. Muse does it inside a general-purpose assistant, next to the chats where many people already plan trips with friends and family.
\n
\n
Skift points out that Meta’s apps reach around 3.6 billion people a day, and Bloomberg Intelligence found that Muse has been downloaded four times as often as Grok Bot.
\n
Muse is a separate product and US-only for now, so these numbers describe potential rather than proven travel demand. But no online travel agency has ever had a starting point quite like it.
\n
\n
Second, and more important for airlines, Muse makes a structural question visible: how exactly does airline content reach an AI agent?
\n
Right now, there are three emerging routes.
\n
\n
The first is a contracted API relationship. Muse’s flight path runs through Duffel, which gives the agent access to live airline inventory, pricing, and booking capability through a defined travel infrastructure partner. That means there is a commercial relationship, a technical interface, and a party responsible for the transaction flow. For airlines, this is the path that looks most familiar. It extends the logic of API-based retailing into the agentic world.
\n
The second route is browser automation. Here, the agent operates a consumer website much like a person would. It searches, compares, fills out forms, and asks the user to step in when it needs a login, approval, or payment decision. Muse already uses this browser path for parts of travel outside its flight integration, and many generalist agents are likely to rely on the same pattern. For suppliers, this is much harder to control. There may be no contract, no agreed rules for how often the agent searches, and no clear commercial model for the cost of being shopped.
\n
The third route sits somewhere in between: platform-native tooling. This is where travel technology providers put their content directly inside the environments where agents are built or used. The Amadeus and Anthropic announcement points in this direction, with Amadeus flight and destination content moving toward Claude Code for developers and a Claude Cowork plugin for travel professionals. It is still waitlist-only, with no general availability date, so it is too early to judge. But the direction is telling. Instead of waiting for general-purpose agents to scrape, browse, or improvise their way into travel, Amadeus is trying to make its content available inside the agent-building workflow itself.
\n
\n
That difference is not a technical detail. It decides whether airlines negotiate terms with agents, reach them through intermediaries, or simply absorb the cost of being searched by them. Importantly, Muse’s flight path also shows that the industry’s years of investment in API-based airline retailing were not wasted. They are what made the contracted route possible in the first place.
\n
With all that said, the economics are far from settled. Agents that keep searching until a budget is met can inflate look-to-book ratios very quickly, which is exactly the infrastructure problem we explored in our Look-to-Book Deep Dive and in Airline AI’s Real Battle Moves Below the Interface. Always-on agents such as OpenAI’s Dots, which keep working towards a goal in the background, would only add to that load once travel planning becomes part of their active use case.
\n
Servicing is also still thin. Beyond Duffel’s support layer, more complex changes still tend to move back to the airline. Muse does not yet prove that consumers will hand flight purchases to a general-purpose assistant at scale. What it does show is more specific, and more useful: the first Big Tech agent to actually sell flights chose a defined API relationship over pure browser automation. At a moment when every major AI company is racing to give people an agent of their own, that is a precedent airlines will want to help shape.
\n
\n
\n
\n
Innovation #2: United Airlines lets the app stand by for you
\n
From an agent that shops on your behalf, we move to the moment when waiting hurts most: right after a flight has gone wrong.
\n
Few airline moments are as draining as the minutes and hours after a disruption. A passenger rebooked onto a later flight who hopes to get home sooner has traditionally had two options:
\n
\n
Queue at a service desk to get on a standby list,
\n
or keep refreshing the app in the hope that an earlier seat appears.
\n
\n
Either way, the passenger does the watching.
\n
United moved that job into its app, launching the feature just ahead of a busy holiday weekend, when it expected around 3.4 million customers.
\n
Here's how it works:
\n
\n
When a disruption pushes a customer onto a later flight, the United app lets them join standby for up to three earlier United flights to the same destination.
\n
The confirmed seat on the later flight stays in place, so standing by carries no risk of ending up with nothing.
\n
United monitors seat availability in the background, so customers no longer have to keep checking.
\n
When a seat opens up, the customer receives a text message and can switch to the earlier flight.
\n
The feature sits alongside United's existing self-service recovery tools (automatic rebooking, meal and hotel vouchers where eligible, and checked-bag tracking), all available without speaking to an agent.
\n
\n
Why does this innovation stand out?
\n
\n
On paper, this is a small feature. In practice, it changes who carries the burden of a disruption. Standby has always required the passenger to ask, to stay close, and to keep checking.
\n
United is turning it into a monitoring task the airline runs on the passenger's behalf, with a confirmed fallback in place.
\n
That is such a structural shift in disruption recovery.
\n
It also builds directly on last month's radar edition, where we looked at systems that stop making travellers repeat information the journey should already know. This is the natural next step: systems that stop making travellers wait for information the airline already has.
\n
United knows when seats free up. Until now, finding out was still the passenger's job.
\n
Reach matters here, too. According to United, more than 85% of its customers use the app on travel days, so a feature like this can reach most of the people affected by a disruption without adding a single agent at the airport. United is a regular on our radar, going back to its AI-written weather delay messages, and disruption communication has been a recurring thread in its innovation work.
\n
In all fairness, the details that decide the real value of this feature have not been published.
\n
\n
How quickly does a customer have to accept an open seat?
\n
How is standby priority set between app users and passengers at the desk?
\n
And how often do seats actually open up on disrupted days, when earlier flights tend to be full?
\n
\n
United calls this an industry first, and we have not seen an equivalent automated version elsewhere. It is also the kind of feature competitors can copy quickly, so the more telling question may be which servicing systems are flexible enough to follow.
\n
\n
\n
Innovation #3: The FAA starts testing SMART on live traffic
\n
After an agent that shops and an app that waits, our third innovation works on a much larger scale: the national airspace.
\n
We should acknowledge something up front. We do not usually return to the same innovation this soon. In our July edition, we covered the FAA's $875 million contract with Air Space Intelligence (a Boston-based aviation AI scaleup) to build its new flow management data backbone and SMART, the predictive layer that runs on top of it.
\n
At the time, we said the launch date would tell us more than the contract value. We also asked how SMART's recommendations would be tested, and how airlines would know why a flight had been moved.
\n
The date held. The FAA began testing SMART in a limited mode, starting in the Washington area, with a 90-day trial before any wider rollout. That is why it earns a second look.
\n
Here's how it works:
\n
\n
SMART (Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories) brings together roughly 200 data streams, including weather patterns, flight trajectories, traffic flow and controller staffing.
\n
Instead of only tracking where weather and congestion are, it forecasts where they are heading, giving controllers and aircraft operators a shared view of the airspace before flights depart.
\n
The aim is earlier, smaller inteventions (adjusting flows before departure) rather than larger ones once holding patterns and ground stops become necessary.
\n
It is decision support, not automation, because controllers retain authority over the airspace, and the first 90 days focus on testing the predictions' reliability.
\n
\n
What makes this innovation so special?
\n
The airline reaction is the most telling part of this story. Before the trial began, airlines raised concerns that SMART's recommendations, if applied too aggressively, could lead to more cancellations and schedule changes. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford briefed American, Delta, Southwest, and United. Afterwards, United CEO Scott Kirby said that if it works as expected, it \"will do more to reduce delays and cancellations than anything that's happened in decades.\"
\n
That mindset shift says a lot. The barrier to predictive air traffic management was never only technical. It was trust. That is the waiting question at the heart of this edition. Today, much of the network waits for congestion to form before acting. SMART tries to move that decision earlier, which means asking airlines to accept a small, certain cost in exchange for avoiding a larger, uncertain one.
\n
The 90-day trial is the honest test, and it is worth being clear about its limits.
\n
\n
It does not (yet) prove that SMART's predictions are accurate enough for airlines to plan around.
\n
It does not (yet) prove that earlier interventions reduce total delay rather than simply redistribute it.
\n
And it does not (yet) answer how the system will explain its recommendations to the airline operations teams that have to act on them.
\n
\n
What we can say is that predictive, AI-supported flow management is now running on live US traffic, which is a meaningful step beyond the contract we covered at the time.
\n
\n
\n
\n
Wrapping up this month's radar
\n
That’s it for this edition. In our view, October may be the most significant Airline-Tech Innovation Radar of the year so far. All three launches sit in the disruptive category, because each changes the timing of a decision that used to depend on human watching and waiting. Will they succeed? Only time will tell.
\n
Stay tuned for our next edition in November.
\n
","post_body":"
Welcome back to the OAG Airline-Tech Innovation Radar, where each month we cut through the noise and spotlight three real-world product launches moving the aviation industry forward from a tech and innovation point of view.
\n
Last month, in Airline Tech Puts a Price on Memory, we looked at how AI is starting to learn the way an airline actually works, whether by buying an airline’s institutional record, embedding a hyperscaler’s models into operations, or letting an agent resolve overbooking before passengers reach the gate.
\n
This month, we turn to something every traveller knows very well: waiting.
\n
\n
Some of it happens at the airport, of course. But much of the more tiring waiting happens earlier and less visibly, while travellers are still trying to make sense of their flight options, compare offers, understand what is worth booking, or wait for the system to turn uncertainty into a clear next step.
\n
Disrupted passengers know this feeling especially well when the journey is already broken, but the alternative hasn't appeared yet.
\n
Airlines and controllers know a version of it too, especially on difficult operating days, when network pressure builds faster than the system can respond.
\n
\n
That is the thesis behind this October edition:
\n
The most interesting launches of the past few weeks moved the job of watching, comparing, and waiting away from people and onto software.
\n
In each case, a system now keeps an eye on something that used to require human patience. The result is a shift from reacting late to acting earlier.
\n
\n
Innovation #1: Meta’s Muse turns a wave of personal agents into a flight checkout
\n
If one thing defined the past few weeks in AI, it was the sheer number of personal agent launches. They arrived almost back-to-back, and travel kept turning up as one of the use cases:
\n
\n
Instinct, a text-message-based agent that went viral for rebooking flights, applying airline credits, and holding seat assignments over SMS and WhatsApp, closed a $250 million funding round just a few months after launch.
\n
SpaceXAI’s Grok Bot went after workplace tasks and passed 418,000 weekly users within its first month.
\n
Amadeus and Anthropic announced a toolkit that puts Amadeus flight and destination content inside Claude Code, plus a Claude Cowork plugin for travel professionals.
\n
OpenAI closed the run at its developer conference with Dots, always-on agents that keep working towards a goal after the user closes ChatGPT.
\n
\n
In the middle of all this, Meta launched Muse, a personal AI agent available in the US through its own app, WhatsApp, and muse.ai.
\n
Of all these launches, it is the one that sells a flight today, which is why it leads this edition.
\n
Here’s how it works:
\n
\n
A traveller describes the trip in plain language in the Muse app, on WhatsApp or on the web, and the agent searches live options.
\n
For flights, Muse connects to Duffel, the London-based flight API and travel infrastructure company, which gives it live inventory and pricing from more than 500 airlines. Through Duffel, travellers can book, cancel and manage trips, with 24/7 human support behind the agent.
\n
Payment runs through Stripe Link with one-time virtual cards, and the traveller approves every purchase before it completes.
\n
Muse can also drive an airline’s own website in a browser, with the traveller handling logins and approvals. Hotels currently work only this way, where the agent shops consumer sites such as Expedia and Hotels.com, much like a person with several tabs open.
\n
\n
Why does this innovation stand out so much?
\n
First, Muse moves agentic flight booking from the future tense into the present. In AI Stops Talking and Starts Transacting, we covered Mindtrip, Sabre and PayPal closing the agentic loop inside a travel-native product. Muse does it inside a general-purpose assistant, next to the chats where many people already plan trips with friends and family.
\n
\n
Skift points out that Meta’s apps reach around 3.6 billion people a day, and Bloomberg Intelligence found that Muse has been downloaded four times as often as Grok Bot.
\n
Muse is a separate product and US-only for now, so these numbers describe potential rather than proven travel demand. But no online travel agency has ever had a starting point quite like it.
\n
\n
Second, and more important for airlines, Muse makes a structural question visible: how exactly does airline content reach an AI agent?
\n
Right now, there are three emerging routes.
\n
\n
The first is a contracted API relationship. Muse’s flight path runs through Duffel, which gives the agent access to live airline inventory, pricing, and booking capability through a defined travel infrastructure partner. That means there is a commercial relationship, a technical interface, and a party responsible for the transaction flow. For airlines, this is the path that looks most familiar. It extends the logic of API-based retailing into the agentic world.
\n
The second route is browser automation. Here, the agent operates a consumer website much like a person would. It searches, compares, fills out forms, and asks the user to step in when it needs a login, approval, or payment decision. Muse already uses this browser path for parts of travel outside its flight integration, and many generalist agents are likely to rely on the same pattern. For suppliers, this is much harder to control. There may be no contract, no agreed rules for how often the agent searches, and no clear commercial model for the cost of being shopped.
\n
The third route sits somewhere in between: platform-native tooling. This is where travel technology providers put their content directly inside the environments where agents are built or used. The Amadeus and Anthropic announcement points in this direction, with Amadeus flight and destination content moving toward Claude Code for developers and a Claude Cowork plugin for travel professionals. It is still waitlist-only, with no general availability date, so it is too early to judge. But the direction is telling. Instead of waiting for general-purpose agents to scrape, browse, or improvise their way into travel, Amadeus is trying to make its content available inside the agent-building workflow itself.
\n
\n
That difference is not a technical detail. It decides whether airlines negotiate terms with agents, reach them through intermediaries, or simply absorb the cost of being searched by them. Importantly, Muse’s flight path also shows that the industry’s years of investment in API-based airline retailing were not wasted. They are what made the contracted route possible in the first place.
\n
With all that said, the economics are far from settled. Agents that keep searching until a budget is met can inflate look-to-book ratios very quickly, which is exactly the infrastructure problem we explored in our Look-to-Book Deep Dive and in Airline AI’s Real Battle Moves Below the Interface. Always-on agents such as OpenAI’s Dots, which keep working towards a goal in the background, would only add to that load once travel planning becomes part of their active use case.
\n
Servicing is also still thin. Beyond Duffel’s support layer, more complex changes still tend to move back to the airline. Muse does not yet prove that consumers will hand flight purchases to a general-purpose assistant at scale. What it does show is more specific, and more useful: the first Big Tech agent to actually sell flights chose a defined API relationship over pure browser automation. At a moment when every major AI company is racing to give people an agent of their own, that is a precedent airlines will want to help shape.
\n
\n
\n
\n
Innovation #2: United Airlines lets the app stand by for you
\n
From an agent that shops on your behalf, we move to the moment when waiting hurts most: right after a flight has gone wrong.
\n
Few airline moments are as draining as the minutes and hours after a disruption. A passenger rebooked onto a later flight who hopes to get home sooner has traditionally had two options:
\n
\n
Queue at a service desk to get on a standby list,
\n
or keep refreshing the app in the hope that an earlier seat appears.
\n
\n
Either way, the passenger does the watching.
\n
United moved that job into its app, launching the feature just ahead of a busy holiday weekend, when it expected around 3.4 million customers.
\n
Here's how it works:
\n
\n
When a disruption pushes a customer onto a later flight, the United app lets them join standby for up to three earlier United flights to the same destination.
\n
The confirmed seat on the later flight stays in place, so standing by carries no risk of ending up with nothing.
\n
United monitors seat availability in the background, so customers no longer have to keep checking.
\n
When a seat opens up, the customer receives a text message and can switch to the earlier flight.
\n
The feature sits alongside United's existing self-service recovery tools (automatic rebooking, meal and hotel vouchers where eligible, and checked-bag tracking), all available without speaking to an agent.
\n
\n
Why does this innovation stand out?
\n
\n
On paper, this is a small feature. In practice, it changes who carries the burden of a disruption. Standby has always required the passenger to ask, to stay close, and to keep checking.
\n
United is turning it into a monitoring task the airline runs on the passenger's behalf, with a confirmed fallback in place.
\n
That is such a structural shift in disruption recovery.
\n
It also builds directly on last month's radar edition, where we looked at systems that stop making travellers repeat information the journey should already know. This is the natural next step: systems that stop making travellers wait for information the airline already has.
\n
United knows when seats free up. Until now, finding out was still the passenger's job.
\n
Reach matters here, too. According to United, more than 85% of its customers use the app on travel days, so a feature like this can reach most of the people affected by a disruption without adding a single agent at the airport. United is a regular on our radar, going back to its AI-written weather delay messages, and disruption communication has been a recurring thread in its innovation work.
\n
In all fairness, the details that decide the real value of this feature have not been published.
\n
\n
How quickly does a customer have to accept an open seat?
\n
How is standby priority set between app users and passengers at the desk?
\n
And how often do seats actually open up on disrupted days, when earlier flights tend to be full?
\n
\n
United calls this an industry first, and we have not seen an equivalent automated version elsewhere. It is also the kind of feature competitors can copy quickly, so the more telling question may be which servicing systems are flexible enough to follow.
\n
\n
\n
Innovation #3: The FAA starts testing SMART on live traffic
\n
After an agent that shops and an app that waits, our third innovation works on a much larger scale: the national airspace.
\n
We should acknowledge something up front. We do not usually return to the same innovation this soon. In our July edition, we covered the FAA's $875 million contract with Air Space Intelligence (a Boston-based aviation AI scaleup) to build its new flow management data backbone and SMART, the predictive layer that runs on top of it.
\n
At the time, we said the launch date would tell us more than the contract value. We also asked how SMART's recommendations would be tested, and how airlines would know why a flight had been moved.
\n
The date held. The FAA began testing SMART in a limited mode, starting in the Washington area, with a 90-day trial before any wider rollout. That is why it earns a second look.
\n
Here's how it works:
\n
\n
SMART (Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories) brings together roughly 200 data streams, including weather patterns, flight trajectories, traffic flow and controller staffing.
\n
Instead of only tracking where weather and congestion are, it forecasts where they are heading, giving controllers and aircraft operators a shared view of the airspace before flights depart.
\n
The aim is earlier, smaller inteventions (adjusting flows before departure) rather than larger ones once holding patterns and ground stops become necessary.
\n
It is decision support, not automation, because controllers retain authority over the airspace, and the first 90 days focus on testing the predictions' reliability.
\n
\n
What makes this innovation so special?
\n
The airline reaction is the most telling part of this story. Before the trial began, airlines raised concerns that SMART's recommendations, if applied too aggressively, could lead to more cancellations and schedule changes. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford briefed American, Delta, Southwest, and United. Afterwards, United CEO Scott Kirby said that if it works as expected, it \"will do more to reduce delays and cancellations than anything that's happened in decades.\"
\n
That mindset shift says a lot. The barrier to predictive air traffic management was never only technical. It was trust. That is the waiting question at the heart of this edition. Today, much of the network waits for congestion to form before acting. SMART tries to move that decision earlier, which means asking airlines to accept a small, certain cost in exchange for avoiding a larger, uncertain one.
\n
The 90-day trial is the honest test, and it is worth being clear about its limits.
\n
\n
It does not (yet) prove that SMART's predictions are accurate enough for airlines to plan around.
\n
It does not (yet) prove that earlier interventions reduce total delay rather than simply redistribute it.
\n
And it does not (yet) answer how the system will explain its recommendations to the airline operations teams that have to act on them.
\n
\n
What we can say is that predictive, AI-supported flow management is now running on live US traffic, which is a meaningful step beyond the contract we covered at the time.
\n
\n
\n
\n
Wrapping up this month's radar
\n
That’s it for this edition. In our view, October may be the most significant Airline-Tech Innovation Radar of the year so far. All three launches sit in the disruptive category, because each changes the timing of a decision that used to depend on human watching and waiting. Will they succeed? Only time will tell.
\n
Stay tuned for our next edition in November.
\n
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Welcome back to the OAG Airline-Tech Innovation Radar, where each month we cut through the noise and spotlight three real-world product launches moving the aviation industry forward from a tech and innovation point of view.
\n
Last month, in Airline Tech Puts a Price on Memory, we looked at how AI is starting to learn the way an airline actually works, whether by buying an airline’s institutional record, embedding a hyperscaler’s models into operations, or letting an agent resolve overbooking before passengers reach the gate.
\n
This month, we turn to something every traveller knows very well: waiting.
\n
\n
Some of it happens at the airport, of course. But much of the more tiring waiting happens earlier and less visibly, while travellers are still trying to make sense of their flight options, compare offers, understand what is worth booking, or wait for the system to turn uncertainty into a clear next step.
\n
Disrupted passengers know this feeling especially well when the journey is already broken, but the alternative hasn't appeared yet.
\n
Airlines and controllers know a version of it too, especially on difficult operating days, when network pressure builds faster than the system can respond.
\n
\n
That is the thesis behind this October edition:
\n
The most interesting launches of the past few weeks moved the job of watching, comparing, and waiting away from people and onto software.
\n
In each case, a system now keeps an eye on something that used to require human patience. The result is a shift from reacting late to acting earlier.
\n
\n
Innovation #1: Meta’s Muse turns a wave of personal agents into a flight checkout
\n
If one thing defined the past few weeks in AI, it was the sheer number of personal agent launches. They arrived almost back-to-back, and travel kept turning up as one of the use cases:
\n
\n
Instinct, a text-message-based agent that went viral for rebooking flights, applying airline credits, and holding seat assignments over SMS and WhatsApp, closed a $250 million funding round just a few months after launch.
\n
SpaceXAI’s Grok Bot went after workplace tasks and passed 418,000 weekly users within its first month.
\n
Amadeus and Anthropic announced a toolkit that puts Amadeus flight and destination content inside Claude Code, plus a Claude Cowork plugin for travel professionals.
\n
OpenAI closed the run at its developer conference with Dots, always-on agents that keep working towards a goal after the user closes ChatGPT.
\n
\n
In the middle of all this, Meta launched Muse, a personal AI agent available in the US through its own app, WhatsApp, and muse.ai.
\n
Of all these launches, it is the one that sells a flight today, which is why it leads this edition.
\n
Here’s how it works:
\n
\n
A traveller describes the trip in plain language in the Muse app, on WhatsApp or on the web, and the agent searches live options.
\n
For flights, Muse connects to Duffel, the London-based flight API and travel infrastructure company, which gives it live inventory and pricing from more than 500 airlines. Through Duffel, travellers can book, cancel and manage trips, with 24/7 human support behind the agent.
\n
Payment runs through Stripe Link with one-time virtual cards, and the traveller approves every purchase before it completes.
\n
Muse can also drive an airline’s own website in a browser, with the traveller handling logins and approvals. Hotels currently work only this way, where the agent shops consumer sites such as Expedia and Hotels.com, much like a person with several tabs open.
\n
\n
Why does this innovation stand out so much?
\n
First, Muse moves agentic flight booking from the future tense into the present. In AI Stops Talking and Starts Transacting, we covered Mindtrip, Sabre and PayPal closing the agentic loop inside a travel-native product. Muse does it inside a general-purpose assistant, next to the chats where many people already plan trips with friends and family.
\n
\n
Skift points out that Meta’s apps reach around 3.6 billion people a day, and Bloomberg Intelligence found that Muse has been downloaded four times as often as Grok Bot.
\n
Muse is a separate product and US-only for now, so these numbers describe potential rather than proven travel demand. But no online travel agency has ever had a starting point quite like it.
\n
\n
Second, and more important for airlines, Muse makes a structural question visible: how exactly does airline content reach an AI agent?
\n
Right now, there are three emerging routes.
\n
\n
The first is a contracted API relationship. Muse’s flight path runs through Duffel, which gives the agent access to live airline inventory, pricing, and booking capability through a defined travel infrastructure partner. That means there is a commercial relationship, a technical interface, and a party responsible for the transaction flow. For airlines, this is the path that looks most familiar. It extends the logic of API-based retailing into the agentic world.
\n
The second route is browser automation. Here, the agent operates a consumer website much like a person would. It searches, compares, fills out forms, and asks the user to step in when it needs a login, approval, or payment decision. Muse already uses this browser path for parts of travel outside its flight integration, and many generalist agents are likely to rely on the same pattern. For suppliers, this is much harder to control. There may be no contract, no agreed rules for how often the agent searches, and no clear commercial model for the cost of being shopped.
\n
The third route sits somewhere in between: platform-native tooling. This is where travel technology providers put their content directly inside the environments where agents are built or used. The Amadeus and Anthropic announcement points in this direction, with Amadeus flight and destination content moving toward Claude Code for developers and a Claude Cowork plugin for travel professionals. It is still waitlist-only, with no general availability date, so it is too early to judge. But the direction is telling. Instead of waiting for general-purpose agents to scrape, browse, or improvise their way into travel, Amadeus is trying to make its content available inside the agent-building workflow itself.
\n
\n
That difference is not a technical detail. It decides whether airlines negotiate terms with agents, reach them through intermediaries, or simply absorb the cost of being searched by them. Importantly, Muse’s flight path also shows that the industry’s years of investment in API-based airline retailing were not wasted. They are what made the contracted route possible in the first place.
\n
With all that said, the economics are far from settled. Agents that keep searching until a budget is met can inflate look-to-book ratios very quickly, which is exactly the infrastructure problem we explored in our Look-to-Book Deep Dive and in Airline AI’s Real Battle Moves Below the Interface. Always-on agents such as OpenAI’s Dots, which keep working towards a goal in the background, would only add to that load once travel planning becomes part of their active use case.
\n
Servicing is also still thin. Beyond Duffel’s support layer, more complex changes still tend to move back to the airline. Muse does not yet prove that consumers will hand flight purchases to a general-purpose assistant at scale. What it does show is more specific, and more useful: the first Big Tech agent to actually sell flights chose a defined API relationship over pure browser automation. At a moment when every major AI company is racing to give people an agent of their own, that is a precedent airlines will want to help shape.
\n
\n
\n
\n
Innovation #2: United Airlines lets the app stand by for you
\n
From an agent that shops on your behalf, we move to the moment when waiting hurts most: right after a flight has gone wrong.
\n
Few airline moments are as draining as the minutes and hours after a disruption. A passenger rebooked onto a later flight who hopes to get home sooner has traditionally had two options:
\n
\n
Queue at a service desk to get on a standby list,
\n
or keep refreshing the app in the hope that an earlier seat appears.
\n
\n
Either way, the passenger does the watching.
\n
United moved that job into its app, launching the feature just ahead of a busy holiday weekend, when it expected around 3.4 million customers.
\n
Here's how it works:
\n
\n
When a disruption pushes a customer onto a later flight, the United app lets them join standby for up to three earlier United flights to the same destination.
\n
The confirmed seat on the later flight stays in place, so standing by carries no risk of ending up with nothing.
\n
United monitors seat availability in the background, so customers no longer have to keep checking.
\n
When a seat opens up, the customer receives a text message and can switch to the earlier flight.
\n
The feature sits alongside United's existing self-service recovery tools (automatic rebooking, meal and hotel vouchers where eligible, and checked-bag tracking), all available without speaking to an agent.
\n
\n
Why does this innovation stand out?
\n
\n
On paper, this is a small feature. In practice, it changes who carries the burden of a disruption. Standby has always required the passenger to ask, to stay close, and to keep checking.
\n
United is turning it into a monitoring task the airline runs on the passenger's behalf, with a confirmed fallback in place.
\n
That is such a structural shift in disruption recovery.
\n
It also builds directly on last month's radar edition, where we looked at systems that stop making travellers repeat information the journey should already know. This is the natural next step: systems that stop making travellers wait for information the airline already has.
\n
United knows when seats free up. Until now, finding out was still the passenger's job.
\n
Reach matters here, too. According to United, more than 85% of its customers use the app on travel days, so a feature like this can reach most of the people affected by a disruption without adding a single agent at the airport. United is a regular on our radar, going back to its AI-written weather delay messages, and disruption communication has been a recurring thread in its innovation work.
\n
In all fairness, the details that decide the real value of this feature have not been published.
\n
\n
How quickly does a customer have to accept an open seat?
\n
How is standby priority set between app users and passengers at the desk?
\n
And how often do seats actually open up on disrupted days, when earlier flights tend to be full?
\n
\n
United calls this an industry first, and we have not seen an equivalent automated version elsewhere. It is also the kind of feature competitors can copy quickly, so the more telling question may be which servicing systems are flexible enough to follow.
\n
\n
\n
Innovation #3: The FAA starts testing SMART on live traffic
\n
After an agent that shops and an app that waits, our third innovation works on a much larger scale: the national airspace.
\n
We should acknowledge something up front. We do not usually return to the same innovation this soon. In our July edition, we covered the FAA's $875 million contract with Air Space Intelligence (a Boston-based aviation AI scaleup) to build its new flow management data backbone and SMART, the predictive layer that runs on top of it.
\n
At the time, we said the launch date would tell us more than the contract value. We also asked how SMART's recommendations would be tested, and how airlines would know why a flight had been moved.
\n
The date held. The FAA began testing SMART in a limited mode, starting in the Washington area, with a 90-day trial before any wider rollout. That is why it earns a second look.
\n
Here's how it works:
\n
\n
SMART (Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories) brings together roughly 200 data streams, including weather patterns, flight trajectories, traffic flow and controller staffing.
\n
Instead of only tracking where weather and congestion are, it forecasts where they are heading, giving controllers and aircraft operators a shared view of the airspace before flights depart.
\n
The aim is earlier, smaller inteventions (adjusting flows before departure) rather than larger ones once holding patterns and ground stops become necessary.
\n
It is decision support, not automation, because controllers retain authority over the airspace, and the first 90 days focus on testing the predictions' reliability.
\n
\n
What makes this innovation so special?
\n
The airline reaction is the most telling part of this story. Before the trial began, airlines raised concerns that SMART's recommendations, if applied too aggressively, could lead to more cancellations and schedule changes. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford briefed American, Delta, Southwest, and United. Afterwards, United CEO Scott Kirby said that if it works as expected, it \"will do more to reduce delays and cancellations than anything that's happened in decades.\"
\n
That mindset shift says a lot. The barrier to predictive air traffic management was never only technical. It was trust. That is the waiting question at the heart of this edition. Today, much of the network waits for congestion to form before acting. SMART tries to move that decision earlier, which means asking airlines to accept a small, certain cost in exchange for avoiding a larger, uncertain one.
\n
The 90-day trial is the honest test, and it is worth being clear about its limits.
\n
\n
It does not (yet) prove that SMART's predictions are accurate enough for airlines to plan around.
\n
It does not (yet) prove that earlier interventions reduce total delay rather than simply redistribute it.
\n
And it does not (yet) answer how the system will explain its recommendations to the airline operations teams that have to act on them.
\n
\n
What we can say is that predictive, AI-supported flow management is now running on live US traffic, which is a meaningful step beyond the contract we covered at the time.
\n
\n
\n
\n
Wrapping up this month's radar
\n
That’s it for this edition. In our view, October may be the most significant Airline-Tech Innovation Radar of the year so far. All three launches sit in the disruptive category, because each changes the timing of a decision that used to depend on human watching and waiting. Will they succeed? Only time will tell.
\n
Stay tuned for our next edition in November.
\n
","postBodyRss":"
Welcome back to the OAG Airline-Tech Innovation Radar, where each month we cut through the noise and spotlight three real-world product launches moving the aviation industry forward from a tech and innovation point of view.
\n
Last month, in Airline Tech Puts a Price on Memory, we looked at how AI is starting to learn the way an airline actually works, whether by buying an airline’s institutional record, embedding a hyperscaler’s models into operations, or letting an agent resolve overbooking before passengers reach the gate.
\n
This month, we turn to something every traveller knows very well: waiting.
\n
\n
Some of it happens at the airport, of course. But much of the more tiring waiting happens earlier and less visibly, while travellers are still trying to make sense of their flight options, compare offers, understand what is worth booking, or wait for the system to turn uncertainty into a clear next step.
\n
Disrupted passengers know this feeling especially well when the journey is already broken, but the alternative hasn't appeared yet.
\n
Airlines and controllers know a version of it too, especially on difficult operating days, when network pressure builds faster than the system can respond.
\n
\n
That is the thesis behind this October edition:
\n
The most interesting launches of the past few weeks moved the job of watching, comparing, and waiting away from people and onto software.
\n
In each case, a system now keeps an eye on something that used to require human patience. The result is a shift from reacting late to acting earlier.
\n
\n
Innovation #1: Meta’s Muse turns a wave of personal agents into a flight checkout
\n
If one thing defined the past few weeks in AI, it was the sheer number of personal agent launches. They arrived almost back-to-back, and travel kept turning up as one of the use cases:
\n
\n
Instinct, a text-message-based agent that went viral for rebooking flights, applying airline credits, and holding seat assignments over SMS and WhatsApp, closed a $250 million funding round just a few months after launch.
\n
SpaceXAI’s Grok Bot went after workplace tasks and passed 418,000 weekly users within its first month.
\n
Amadeus and Anthropic announced a toolkit that puts Amadeus flight and destination content inside Claude Code, plus a Claude Cowork plugin for travel professionals.
\n
OpenAI closed the run at its developer conference with Dots, always-on agents that keep working towards a goal after the user closes ChatGPT.
\n
\n
In the middle of all this, Meta launched Muse, a personal AI agent available in the US through its own app, WhatsApp, and muse.ai.
\n
Of all these launches, it is the one that sells a flight today, which is why it leads this edition.
\n
Here’s how it works:
\n
\n
A traveller describes the trip in plain language in the Muse app, on WhatsApp or on the web, and the agent searches live options.
\n
For flights, Muse connects to Duffel, the London-based flight API and travel infrastructure company, which gives it live inventory and pricing from more than 500 airlines. Through Duffel, travellers can book, cancel and manage trips, with 24/7 human support behind the agent.
\n
Payment runs through Stripe Link with one-time virtual cards, and the traveller approves every purchase before it completes.
\n
Muse can also drive an airline’s own website in a browser, with the traveller handling logins and approvals. Hotels currently work only this way, where the agent shops consumer sites such as Expedia and Hotels.com, much like a person with several tabs open.
\n
\n
Why does this innovation stand out so much?
\n
First, Muse moves agentic flight booking from the future tense into the present. In AI Stops Talking and Starts Transacting, we covered Mindtrip, Sabre and PayPal closing the agentic loop inside a travel-native product. Muse does it inside a general-purpose assistant, next to the chats where many people already plan trips with friends and family.
\n
\n
Skift points out that Meta’s apps reach around 3.6 billion people a day, and Bloomberg Intelligence found that Muse has been downloaded four times as often as Grok Bot.
\n
Muse is a separate product and US-only for now, so these numbers describe potential rather than proven travel demand. But no online travel agency has ever had a starting point quite like it.
\n
\n
Second, and more important for airlines, Muse makes a structural question visible: how exactly does airline content reach an AI agent?
\n
Right now, there are three emerging routes.
\n
\n
The first is a contracted API relationship. Muse’s flight path runs through Duffel, which gives the agent access to live airline inventory, pricing, and booking capability through a defined travel infrastructure partner. That means there is a commercial relationship, a technical interface, and a party responsible for the transaction flow. For airlines, this is the path that looks most familiar. It extends the logic of API-based retailing into the agentic world.
\n
The second route is browser automation. Here, the agent operates a consumer website much like a person would. It searches, compares, fills out forms, and asks the user to step in when it needs a login, approval, or payment decision. Muse already uses this browser path for parts of travel outside its flight integration, and many generalist agents are likely to rely on the same pattern. For suppliers, this is much harder to control. There may be no contract, no agreed rules for how often the agent searches, and no clear commercial model for the cost of being shopped.
\n
The third route sits somewhere in between: platform-native tooling. This is where travel technology providers put their content directly inside the environments where agents are built or used. The Amadeus and Anthropic announcement points in this direction, with Amadeus flight and destination content moving toward Claude Code for developers and a Claude Cowork plugin for travel professionals. It is still waitlist-only, with no general availability date, so it is too early to judge. But the direction is telling. Instead of waiting for general-purpose agents to scrape, browse, or improvise their way into travel, Amadeus is trying to make its content available inside the agent-building workflow itself.
\n
\n
That difference is not a technical detail. It decides whether airlines negotiate terms with agents, reach them through intermediaries, or simply absorb the cost of being searched by them. Importantly, Muse’s flight path also shows that the industry’s years of investment in API-based airline retailing were not wasted. They are what made the contracted route possible in the first place.
\n
With all that said, the economics are far from settled. Agents that keep searching until a budget is met can inflate look-to-book ratios very quickly, which is exactly the infrastructure problem we explored in our Look-to-Book Deep Dive and in Airline AI’s Real Battle Moves Below the Interface. Always-on agents such as OpenAI’s Dots, which keep working towards a goal in the background, would only add to that load once travel planning becomes part of their active use case.
\n
Servicing is also still thin. Beyond Duffel’s support layer, more complex changes still tend to move back to the airline. Muse does not yet prove that consumers will hand flight purchases to a general-purpose assistant at scale. What it does show is more specific, and more useful: the first Big Tech agent to actually sell flights chose a defined API relationship over pure browser automation. At a moment when every major AI company is racing to give people an agent of their own, that is a precedent airlines will want to help shape.
\n
\n
\n
\n
Innovation #2: United Airlines lets the app stand by for you
\n
From an agent that shops on your behalf, we move to the moment when waiting hurts most: right after a flight has gone wrong.
\n
Few airline moments are as draining as the minutes and hours after a disruption. A passenger rebooked onto a later flight who hopes to get home sooner has traditionally had two options:
\n
\n
Queue at a service desk to get on a standby list,
\n
or keep refreshing the app in the hope that an earlier seat appears.
\n
\n
Either way, the passenger does the watching.
\n
United moved that job into its app, launching the feature just ahead of a busy holiday weekend, when it expected around 3.4 million customers.
\n
Here's how it works:
\n
\n
When a disruption pushes a customer onto a later flight, the United app lets them join standby for up to three earlier United flights to the same destination.
\n
The confirmed seat on the later flight stays in place, so standing by carries no risk of ending up with nothing.
\n
United monitors seat availability in the background, so customers no longer have to keep checking.
\n
When a seat opens up, the customer receives a text message and can switch to the earlier flight.
\n
The feature sits alongside United's existing self-service recovery tools (automatic rebooking, meal and hotel vouchers where eligible, and checked-bag tracking), all available without speaking to an agent.
\n
\n
Why does this innovation stand out?
\n
\n
On paper, this is a small feature. In practice, it changes who carries the burden of a disruption. Standby has always required the passenger to ask, to stay close, and to keep checking.
\n
United is turning it into a monitoring task the airline runs on the passenger's behalf, with a confirmed fallback in place.
\n
That is such a structural shift in disruption recovery.
\n
It also builds directly on last month's radar edition, where we looked at systems that stop making travellers repeat information the journey should already know. This is the natural next step: systems that stop making travellers wait for information the airline already has.
\n
United knows when seats free up. Until now, finding out was still the passenger's job.
\n
Reach matters here, too. According to United, more than 85% of its customers use the app on travel days, so a feature like this can reach most of the people affected by a disruption without adding a single agent at the airport. United is a regular on our radar, going back to its AI-written weather delay messages, and disruption communication has been a recurring thread in its innovation work.
\n
In all fairness, the details that decide the real value of this feature have not been published.
\n
\n
How quickly does a customer have to accept an open seat?
\n
How is standby priority set between app users and passengers at the desk?
\n
And how often do seats actually open up on disrupted days, when earlier flights tend to be full?
\n
\n
United calls this an industry first, and we have not seen an equivalent automated version elsewhere. It is also the kind of feature competitors can copy quickly, so the more telling question may be which servicing systems are flexible enough to follow.
\n
\n
\n
Innovation #3: The FAA starts testing SMART on live traffic
\n
After an agent that shops and an app that waits, our third innovation works on a much larger scale: the national airspace.
\n
We should acknowledge something up front. We do not usually return to the same innovation this soon. In our July edition, we covered the FAA's $875 million contract with Air Space Intelligence (a Boston-based aviation AI scaleup) to build its new flow management data backbone and SMART, the predictive layer that runs on top of it.
\n
At the time, we said the launch date would tell us more than the contract value. We also asked how SMART's recommendations would be tested, and how airlines would know why a flight had been moved.
\n
The date held. The FAA began testing SMART in a limited mode, starting in the Washington area, with a 90-day trial before any wider rollout. That is why it earns a second look.
\n
Here's how it works:
\n
\n
SMART (Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories) brings together roughly 200 data streams, including weather patterns, flight trajectories, traffic flow and controller staffing.
\n
Instead of only tracking where weather and congestion are, it forecasts where they are heading, giving controllers and aircraft operators a shared view of the airspace before flights depart.
\n
The aim is earlier, smaller inteventions (adjusting flows before departure) rather than larger ones once holding patterns and ground stops become necessary.
\n
It is decision support, not automation, because controllers retain authority over the airspace, and the first 90 days focus on testing the predictions' reliability.
\n
\n
What makes this innovation so special?
\n
The airline reaction is the most telling part of this story. Before the trial began, airlines raised concerns that SMART's recommendations, if applied too aggressively, could lead to more cancellations and schedule changes. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford briefed American, Delta, Southwest, and United. Afterwards, United CEO Scott Kirby said that if it works as expected, it \"will do more to reduce delays and cancellations than anything that's happened in decades.\"
\n
That mindset shift says a lot. The barrier to predictive air traffic management was never only technical. It was trust. That is the waiting question at the heart of this edition. Today, much of the network waits for congestion to form before acting. SMART tries to move that decision earlier, which means asking airlines to accept a small, certain cost in exchange for avoiding a larger, uncertain one.
\n
The 90-day trial is the honest test, and it is worth being clear about its limits.
\n
\n
It does not (yet) prove that SMART's predictions are accurate enough for airlines to plan around.
\n
It does not (yet) prove that earlier interventions reduce total delay rather than simply redistribute it.
\n
And it does not (yet) answer how the system will explain its recommendations to the airline operations teams that have to act on them.
\n
\n
What we can say is that predictive, AI-supported flow management is now running on live US traffic, which is a meaningful step beyond the contract we covered at the time.
\n
\n
\n
\n
Wrapping up this month's radar
\n
That’s it for this edition. In our view, October may be the most significant Airline-Tech Innovation Radar of the year so far. All three launches sit in the disruptive category, because each changes the timing of a decision that used to depend on human watching and waiting. Will they succeed? Only time will tell.
\n
Stay tuned for our next edition in November.
\n
","postEmailContent":"
Welcome back to the OAG Airline-Tech Innovation Radar, where each month we cut through the noise and spotlight three real-world product launches moving the aviation industry forward from a tech and innovation point of view.
Welcome back to the OAG Airline-Tech Innovation Radar, where each month we cut through the noise and spotlight three real-world product launches moving the aviation industry forward from a tech and innovation point of view.
Welcome back to the OAG Airline-Tech Innovation Radar, where each month we cut through the noise and spotlight three real-world product launches moving the aviation industry forward from a tech and innovation point of view.
Welcome back to the OAG Airline-Tech Innovation Radar, where each month we cut through the noise and spotlight three real-world product launches moving the aviation industry forward from a tech and innovation point of view.
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Welcome back to the OAG Airline-Tech Innovation Radar, where each month we cut through the noise and spotlight three real-world product launches moving the aviation industry forward from a tech and innovation point of view.
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Welcome back to the OAG Airline-Tech Innovation Radar, where each month we cut through the noise and spotlight three real-world product launches moving the aviation industry forward from a tech and innovation point of view.
\n
Last month, in Airline Tech Puts a Price on Memory, we looked at how AI is starting to learn the way an airline actually works, whether by buying an airline’s institutional record, embedding a hyperscaler’s models into operations, or letting an agent resolve overbooking before passengers reach the gate.
\n
This month, we turn to something every traveller knows very well: waiting.
\n
\n
Some of it happens at the airport, of course. But much of the more tiring waiting happens earlier and less visibly, while travellers are still trying to make sense of their flight options, compare offers, understand what is worth booking, or wait for the system to turn uncertainty into a clear next step.
\n
Disrupted passengers know this feeling especially well when the journey is already broken, but the alternative hasn't appeared yet.
\n
Airlines and controllers know a version of it too, especially on difficult operating days, when network pressure builds faster than the system can respond.
\n
\n
That is the thesis behind this October edition:
\n
The most interesting launches of the past few weeks moved the job of watching, comparing, and waiting away from people and onto software.
\n
In each case, a system now keeps an eye on something that used to require human patience. The result is a shift from reacting late to acting earlier.
\n
\n
Innovation #1: Meta’s Muse turns a wave of personal agents into a flight checkout
\n
If one thing defined the past few weeks in AI, it was the sheer number of personal agent launches. They arrived almost back-to-back, and travel kept turning up as one of the use cases:
\n
\n
Instinct, a text-message-based agent that went viral for rebooking flights, applying airline credits, and holding seat assignments over SMS and WhatsApp, closed a $250 million funding round just a few months after launch.
\n
SpaceXAI’s Grok Bot went after workplace tasks and passed 418,000 weekly users within its first month.
\n
Amadeus and Anthropic announced a toolkit that puts Amadeus flight and destination content inside Claude Code, plus a Claude Cowork plugin for travel professionals.
\n
OpenAI closed the run at its developer conference with Dots, always-on agents that keep working towards a goal after the user closes ChatGPT.
\n
\n
In the middle of all this, Meta launched Muse, a personal AI agent available in the US through its own app, WhatsApp, and muse.ai.
\n
Of all these launches, it is the one that sells a flight today, which is why it leads this edition.
\n
Here’s how it works:
\n
\n
A traveller describes the trip in plain language in the Muse app, on WhatsApp or on the web, and the agent searches live options.
\n
For flights, Muse connects to Duffel, the London-based flight API and travel infrastructure company, which gives it live inventory and pricing from more than 500 airlines. Through Duffel, travellers can book, cancel and manage trips, with 24/7 human support behind the agent.
\n
Payment runs through Stripe Link with one-time virtual cards, and the traveller approves every purchase before it completes.
\n
Muse can also drive an airline’s own website in a browser, with the traveller handling logins and approvals. Hotels currently work only this way, where the agent shops consumer sites such as Expedia and Hotels.com, much like a person with several tabs open.
\n
\n
Why does this innovation stand out so much?
\n
First, Muse moves agentic flight booking from the future tense into the present. In AI Stops Talking and Starts Transacting, we covered Mindtrip, Sabre and PayPal closing the agentic loop inside a travel-native product. Muse does it inside a general-purpose assistant, next to the chats where many people already plan trips with friends and family.
\n
\n
Skift points out that Meta’s apps reach around 3.6 billion people a day, and Bloomberg Intelligence found that Muse has been downloaded four times as often as Grok Bot.
\n
Muse is a separate product and US-only for now, so these numbers describe potential rather than proven travel demand. But no online travel agency has ever had a starting point quite like it.
\n
\n
Second, and more important for airlines, Muse makes a structural question visible: how exactly does airline content reach an AI agent?
\n
Right now, there are three emerging routes.
\n
\n
The first is a contracted API relationship. Muse’s flight path runs through Duffel, which gives the agent access to live airline inventory, pricing, and booking capability through a defined travel infrastructure partner. That means there is a commercial relationship, a technical interface, and a party responsible for the transaction flow. For airlines, this is the path that looks most familiar. It extends the logic of API-based retailing into the agentic world.
\n
The second route is browser automation. Here, the agent operates a consumer website much like a person would. It searches, compares, fills out forms, and asks the user to step in when it needs a login, approval, or payment decision. Muse already uses this browser path for parts of travel outside its flight integration, and many generalist agents are likely to rely on the same pattern. For suppliers, this is much harder to control. There may be no contract, no agreed rules for how often the agent searches, and no clear commercial model for the cost of being shopped.
\n
The third route sits somewhere in between: platform-native tooling. This is where travel technology providers put their content directly inside the environments where agents are built or used. The Amadeus and Anthropic announcement points in this direction, with Amadeus flight and destination content moving toward Claude Code for developers and a Claude Cowork plugin for travel professionals. It is still waitlist-only, with no general availability date, so it is too early to judge. But the direction is telling. Instead of waiting for general-purpose agents to scrape, browse, or improvise their way into travel, Amadeus is trying to make its content available inside the agent-building workflow itself.
\n
\n
That difference is not a technical detail. It decides whether airlines negotiate terms with agents, reach them through intermediaries, or simply absorb the cost of being searched by them. Importantly, Muse’s flight path also shows that the industry’s years of investment in API-based airline retailing were not wasted. They are what made the contracted route possible in the first place.
\n
With all that said, the economics are far from settled. Agents that keep searching until a budget is met can inflate look-to-book ratios very quickly, which is exactly the infrastructure problem we explored in our Look-to-Book Deep Dive and in Airline AI’s Real Battle Moves Below the Interface. Always-on agents such as OpenAI’s Dots, which keep working towards a goal in the background, would only add to that load once travel planning becomes part of their active use case.
\n
Servicing is also still thin. Beyond Duffel’s support layer, more complex changes still tend to move back to the airline. Muse does not yet prove that consumers will hand flight purchases to a general-purpose assistant at scale. What it does show is more specific, and more useful: the first Big Tech agent to actually sell flights chose a defined API relationship over pure browser automation. At a moment when every major AI company is racing to give people an agent of their own, that is a precedent airlines will want to help shape.
\n
\n
\n
\n
Innovation #2: United Airlines lets the app stand by for you
\n
From an agent that shops on your behalf, we move to the moment when waiting hurts most: right after a flight has gone wrong.
\n
Few airline moments are as draining as the minutes and hours after a disruption. A passenger rebooked onto a later flight who hopes to get home sooner has traditionally had two options:
\n
\n
Queue at a service desk to get on a standby list,
\n
or keep refreshing the app in the hope that an earlier seat appears.
\n
\n
Either way, the passenger does the watching.
\n
United moved that job into its app, launching the feature just ahead of a busy holiday weekend, when it expected around 3.4 million customers.
\n
Here's how it works:
\n
\n
When a disruption pushes a customer onto a later flight, the United app lets them join standby for up to three earlier United flights to the same destination.
\n
The confirmed seat on the later flight stays in place, so standing by carries no risk of ending up with nothing.
\n
United monitors seat availability in the background, so customers no longer have to keep checking.
\n
When a seat opens up, the customer receives a text message and can switch to the earlier flight.
\n
The feature sits alongside United's existing self-service recovery tools (automatic rebooking, meal and hotel vouchers where eligible, and checked-bag tracking), all available without speaking to an agent.
\n
\n
Why does this innovation stand out?
\n
\n
On paper, this is a small feature. In practice, it changes who carries the burden of a disruption. Standby has always required the passenger to ask, to stay close, and to keep checking.
\n
United is turning it into a monitoring task the airline runs on the passenger's behalf, with a confirmed fallback in place.
\n
That is such a structural shift in disruption recovery.
\n
It also builds directly on last month's radar edition, where we looked at systems that stop making travellers repeat information the journey should already know. This is the natural next step: systems that stop making travellers wait for information the airline already has.
\n
United knows when seats free up. Until now, finding out was still the passenger's job.
\n
Reach matters here, too. According to United, more than 85% of its customers use the app on travel days, so a feature like this can reach most of the people affected by a disruption without adding a single agent at the airport. United is a regular on our radar, going back to its AI-written weather delay messages, and disruption communication has been a recurring thread in its innovation work.
\n
In all fairness, the details that decide the real value of this feature have not been published.
\n
\n
How quickly does a customer have to accept an open seat?
\n
How is standby priority set between app users and passengers at the desk?
\n
And how often do seats actually open up on disrupted days, when earlier flights tend to be full?
\n
\n
United calls this an industry first, and we have not seen an equivalent automated version elsewhere. It is also the kind of feature competitors can copy quickly, so the more telling question may be which servicing systems are flexible enough to follow.
\n
\n
\n
Innovation #3: The FAA starts testing SMART on live traffic
\n
After an agent that shops and an app that waits, our third innovation works on a much larger scale: the national airspace.
\n
We should acknowledge something up front. We do not usually return to the same innovation this soon. In our July edition, we covered the FAA's $875 million contract with Air Space Intelligence (a Boston-based aviation AI scaleup) to build its new flow management data backbone and SMART, the predictive layer that runs on top of it.
\n
At the time, we said the launch date would tell us more than the contract value. We also asked how SMART's recommendations would be tested, and how airlines would know why a flight had been moved.
\n
The date held. The FAA began testing SMART in a limited mode, starting in the Washington area, with a 90-day trial before any wider rollout. That is why it earns a second look.
\n
Here's how it works:
\n
\n
SMART (Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories) brings together roughly 200 data streams, including weather patterns, flight trajectories, traffic flow and controller staffing.
\n
Instead of only tracking where weather and congestion are, it forecasts where they are heading, giving controllers and aircraft operators a shared view of the airspace before flights depart.
\n
The aim is earlier, smaller inteventions (adjusting flows before departure) rather than larger ones once holding patterns and ground stops become necessary.
\n
It is decision support, not automation, because controllers retain authority over the airspace, and the first 90 days focus on testing the predictions' reliability.
\n
\n
What makes this innovation so special?
\n
The airline reaction is the most telling part of this story. Before the trial began, airlines raised concerns that SMART's recommendations, if applied too aggressively, could lead to more cancellations and schedule changes. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford briefed American, Delta, Southwest, and United. Afterwards, United CEO Scott Kirby said that if it works as expected, it \"will do more to reduce delays and cancellations than anything that's happened in decades.\"
\n
That mindset shift says a lot. The barrier to predictive air traffic management was never only technical. It was trust. That is the waiting question at the heart of this edition. Today, much of the network waits for congestion to form before acting. SMART tries to move that decision earlier, which means asking airlines to accept a small, certain cost in exchange for avoiding a larger, uncertain one.
\n
The 90-day trial is the honest test, and it is worth being clear about its limits.
\n
\n
It does not (yet) prove that SMART's predictions are accurate enough for airlines to plan around.
\n
It does not (yet) prove that earlier interventions reduce total delay rather than simply redistribute it.
\n
And it does not (yet) answer how the system will explain its recommendations to the airline operations teams that have to act on them.
\n
\n
What we can say is that predictive, AI-supported flow management is now running on live US traffic, which is a meaningful step beyond the contract we covered at the time.
\n
\n
\n
\n
Wrapping up this month's radar
\n
That’s it for this edition. In our view, October may be the most significant Airline-Tech Innovation Radar of the year so far. All three launches sit in the disruptive category, because each changes the timing of a decision that used to depend on human watching and waiting. Will they succeed? Only time will tell.
\n
Stay tuned for our next edition in November.
\n
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shifts, following the live reveal of OAG's 2026 Megahubs rankings. \n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Megahubs Rankings: Istanbul has risen to first place as the most connected global Megahub in 2026, serving 337 destinations in the 12 months to August 2026. With 80% of capacity in the hands of Turkish Airlines and the ability to operate three simultaneous runways, it leads on both airline coordination and infrastructure. Heathrow sits second but has no room to grow, and Amsterdam is constrained by an annual movements cap of 480,000.
\n
Capacity Trends:Global capacity has been fairly flat compared to last year. In the Middle East, most European carriers have virtually closed all their operations, impacting capacity across the region. In the US, the loss of Spirit Airlines removed 3% of domestic market capacity. With industry fuel spend forecast to be $100 billion more than originally projected at the start of the year, the outlook for airlines and airports heading into winter remains cautious.
\n
US Domestic Megahubs: Chicago O'Hare tops the US domestic Megahubs ranking, which uses a three-hour maximum connecting window. Having been first equal with Atlanta last year, Chicago has edged ahead in 2026. The airport serves 227 domestic destinations with nearly 84,000 potential connections on its busiest day. United Airlines holds the dominant position with 49% of total capacity, with a significant American Airlines presence alongside.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Middle East Dynamics: Riyadh and Jeddah are beginning to plateau in terms of growth, while Dubai and Doha continue to come back. Cairo's potential to position itself as a regional hub remains an open question, with the challenge of competing against established hubs and whether it can compete with the Ethiopian and Addis Ababa combination for African connectivity.
\n
\n
\n
Low-Cost Carrier Megahubs: Kuala Lumpur tops the low-cost carrier Megahubs ranking, making it both the most connected Megahub in Asia and the number one low-cost carrier Megahub globally. Asia-Pacific airports dominate this category, with 16 of the top 25 located in Asia and 18 in Europe and the Middle East. Low-cost carrier penetration across the Asia-Pacific region now sits at around 60%.
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
\n
\n
","published_at":1789640220594,"generate_json_ld_enabled":true,"rss_summary":"In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Angie Kocerka (Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Department of Aviation) to discuss which airports lead the world in connectivity and what is driving the shifts, following the live reveal of OAG's 2026 Megahubs rankings. \n","tag_ids":[67554932020],"topic_ids":[67554932020],"post_summary":"In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Angie Kocerka (Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Department of Aviation) to discuss which airports lead the world in connectivity and what is driving the shifts, following the live reveal of OAG's 2026 Megahubs rankings. \n","blog_post_schedule_task_uid":null,"rss_body":"In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Angie Kocerka (Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Department of Aviation) to discuss which airports lead the world in connectivity and what is driving the shifts, following the live reveal of OAG's 2026 Megahubs rankings. \n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Megahubs Rankings: Istanbul has risen to first place as the most connected global Megahub in 2026, serving 337 destinations in the 12 months to August 2026. With 80% of capacity in the hands of Turkish Airlines and the ability to operate three simultaneous runways, it leads on both airline coordination and infrastructure. Heathrow sits second but has no room to grow, and Amsterdam is constrained by an annual movements cap of 480,000.
\n
Capacity Trends:Global capacity has been fairly flat compared to last year. In the Middle East, most European carriers have virtually closed all their operations, impacting capacity across the region. In the US, the loss of Spirit Airlines removed 3% of domestic market capacity. With industry fuel spend forecast to be $100 billion more than originally projected at the start of the year, the outlook for airlines and airports heading into winter remains cautious.
\n
US Domestic Megahubs: Chicago O'Hare tops the US domestic Megahubs ranking, which uses a three-hour maximum connecting window. Having been first equal with Atlanta last year, Chicago has edged ahead in 2026. The airport serves 227 domestic destinations with nearly 84,000 potential connections on its busiest day. United Airlines holds the dominant position with 49% of total capacity, with a significant American Airlines presence alongside.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Middle East Dynamics: Riyadh and Jeddah are beginning to plateau in terms of growth, while Dubai and Doha continue to come back. Cairo's potential to position itself as a regional hub remains an open question, with the challenge of competing against established hubs and whether it can compete with the Ethiopian and Addis Ababa combination for African connectivity.
\n
\n
\n
Low-Cost Carrier Megahubs: Kuala Lumpur tops the low-cost carrier Megahubs ranking, making it both the most connected Megahub in Asia and the number one low-cost carrier Megahub globally. Asia-Pacific airports dominate this category, with 16 of the top 25 located in Asia and 18 in Europe and the Middle East. Low-cost carrier penetration across the Asia-Pacific region now sits at around 60%.
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
\n
\n
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Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Megahubs Rankings: Istanbul has risen to first place as the most connected global Megahub in 2026, serving 337 destinations in the 12 months to August 2026. With 80% of capacity in the hands of Turkish Airlines and the ability to operate three simultaneous runways, it leads on both airline coordination and infrastructure. Heathrow sits second but has no room to grow, and Amsterdam is constrained by an annual movements cap of 480,000.
\n
Capacity Trends:Global capacity has been fairly flat compared to last year. In the Middle East, most European carriers have virtually closed all their operations, impacting capacity across the region. In the US, the loss of Spirit Airlines removed 3% of domestic market capacity. With industry fuel spend forecast to be $100 billion more than originally projected at the start of the year, the outlook for airlines and airports heading into winter remains cautious.
\n
US Domestic Megahubs: Chicago O'Hare tops the US domestic Megahubs ranking, which uses a three-hour maximum connecting window. Having been first equal with Atlanta last year, Chicago has edged ahead in 2026. The airport serves 227 domestic destinations with nearly 84,000 potential connections on its busiest day. United Airlines holds the dominant position with 49% of total capacity, with a significant American Airlines presence alongside.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Middle East Dynamics: Riyadh and Jeddah are beginning to plateau in terms of growth, while Dubai and Doha continue to come back. Cairo's potential to position itself as a regional hub remains an open question, with the challenge of competing against established hubs and whether it can compete with the Ethiopian and Addis Ababa combination for African connectivity.
\n
\n
\n
Low-Cost Carrier Megahubs: Kuala Lumpur tops the low-cost carrier Megahubs ranking, making it both the most connected Megahub in Asia and the number one low-cost carrier Megahub globally. Asia-Pacific airports dominate this category, with 16 of the top 25 located in Asia and 18 in Europe and the Middle East. Low-cost carrier penetration across the Asia-Pacific region now sits at around 60%.
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
\n
\n
","postBodyRss":"In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Angie Kocerka (Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Department of Aviation) to discuss which airports lead the world in connectivity and what is driving the shifts, following the live reveal of OAG's 2026 Megahubs rankings. \n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Megahubs Rankings: Istanbul has risen to first place as the most connected global Megahub in 2026, serving 337 destinations in the 12 months to August 2026. With 80% of capacity in the hands of Turkish Airlines and the ability to operate three simultaneous runways, it leads on both airline coordination and infrastructure. Heathrow sits second but has no room to grow, and Amsterdam is constrained by an annual movements cap of 480,000.
\n
Capacity Trends:Global capacity has been fairly flat compared to last year. In the Middle East, most European carriers have virtually closed all their operations, impacting capacity across the region. In the US, the loss of Spirit Airlines removed 3% of domestic market capacity. With industry fuel spend forecast to be $100 billion more than originally projected at the start of the year, the outlook for airlines and airports heading into winter remains cautious.
\n
US Domestic Megahubs: Chicago O'Hare tops the US domestic Megahubs ranking, which uses a three-hour maximum connecting window. Having been first equal with Atlanta last year, Chicago has edged ahead in 2026. The airport serves 227 domestic destinations with nearly 84,000 potential connections on its busiest day. United Airlines holds the dominant position with 49% of total capacity, with a significant American Airlines presence alongside.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Middle East Dynamics: Riyadh and Jeddah are beginning to plateau in terms of growth, while Dubai and Doha continue to come back. Cairo's potential to position itself as a regional hub remains an open question, with the challenge of competing against established hubs and whether it can compete with the Ethiopian and Addis Ababa combination for African connectivity.
\n
\n
\n
Low-Cost Carrier Megahubs: Kuala Lumpur tops the low-cost carrier Megahubs ranking, making it both the most connected Megahub in Asia and the number one low-cost carrier Megahub globally. Asia-Pacific airports dominate this category, with 16 of the top 25 located in Asia and 18 in Europe and the Middle East. Low-cost carrier penetration across the Asia-Pacific region now sits at around 60%.
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
\n
\n
","postEmailContent":"In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Angie Kocerka (Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Department of Aviation) to discuss which airports lead the world in connectivity and what is driving the shifts, following the live reveal of OAG's 2026 Megahubs rankings. \n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Megahubs Rankings: Istanbul has risen to first place as the most connected global Megahub in 2026, serving 337 destinations in the 12 months to August 2026. With 80% of capacity in the hands of Turkish Airlines and the ability to operate three simultaneous runways, it leads on both airline coordination and infrastructure. Heathrow sits second but has no room to grow, and Amsterdam is constrained by an annual movements cap of 480,000.
\n
Capacity Trends:Global capacity has been fairly flat compared to last year. In the Middle East, most European carriers have virtually closed all their operations, impacting capacity across the region. In the US, the loss of Spirit Airlines removed 3% of domestic market capacity. With industry fuel spend forecast to be $100 billion more than originally projected at the start of the year, the outlook for airlines and airports heading into winter remains cautious.
\n
US Domestic Megahubs: Chicago O'Hare tops the US domestic Megahubs ranking, which uses a three-hour maximum connecting window. Having been first equal with Atlanta last year, Chicago has edged ahead in 2026. The airport serves 227 domestic destinations with nearly 84,000 potential connections on its busiest day. United Airlines holds the dominant position with 49% of total capacity, with a significant American Airlines presence alongside.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Middle East Dynamics: Riyadh and Jeddah are beginning to plateau in terms of growth, while Dubai and Doha continue to come back. Cairo's potential to position itself as a regional hub remains an open question, with the challenge of competing against established hubs and whether it can compete with the Ethiopian and Addis Ababa combination for African connectivity.
\n
\n
\n
Low-Cost Carrier Megahubs: Kuala Lumpur tops the low-cost carrier Megahubs ranking, making it both the most connected Megahub in Asia and the number one low-cost carrier Megahub globally. Asia-Pacific airports dominate this category, with 16 of the top 25 located in Asia and 18 in Europe and the Middle East. Low-cost carrier penetration across the Asia-Pacific region now sits at around 60%.
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
\n
\n
","postFeaturedImageIfEnabled":"https://490937.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/490937/Using%20this%20image%20create%20a%20featured%20image%20for%20a%20blog%20entitled%20_Megahubs_%20OAGs%20ta.png","postListContent":"In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Angie Kocerka (Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Department of Aviation) to discuss which airports lead the world in connectivity and what is driving the shifts, following the live reveal of OAG's 2026 Megahubs rankings. \n ","postListSummaryFeaturedImage":"https://490937.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/490937/Using%20this%20image%20create%20a%20featured%20image%20for%20a%20blog%20entitled%20_Megahubs_%20OAGs%20ta.png","postRssContent":"In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Angie Kocerka (Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Department of Aviation) to discuss which airports lead the world in connectivity and what is driving the shifts, following the live reveal of OAG's 2026 Megahubs rankings. \n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Megahubs Rankings: Istanbul has risen to first place as the most connected global Megahub in 2026, serving 337 destinations in the 12 months to August 2026. With 80% of capacity in the hands of Turkish Airlines and the ability to operate three simultaneous runways, it leads on both airline coordination and infrastructure. Heathrow sits second but has no room to grow, and Amsterdam is constrained by an annual movements cap of 480,000.
\n
Capacity Trends:Global capacity has been fairly flat compared to last year. In the Middle East, most European carriers have virtually closed all their operations, impacting capacity across the region. In the US, the loss of Spirit Airlines removed 3% of domestic market capacity. With industry fuel spend forecast to be $100 billion more than originally projected at the start of the year, the outlook for airlines and airports heading into winter remains cautious.
\n
US Domestic Megahubs: Chicago O'Hare tops the US domestic Megahubs ranking, which uses a three-hour maximum connecting window. Having been first equal with Atlanta last year, Chicago has edged ahead in 2026. The airport serves 227 domestic destinations with nearly 84,000 potential connections on its busiest day. United Airlines holds the dominant position with 49% of total capacity, with a significant American Airlines presence alongside.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Middle East Dynamics: Riyadh and Jeddah are beginning to plateau in terms of growth, while Dubai and Doha continue to come back. Cairo's potential to position itself as a regional hub remains an open question, with the challenge of competing against established hubs and whether it can compete with the Ethiopian and Addis Ababa combination for African connectivity.
\n
\n
\n
Low-Cost Carrier Megahubs: Kuala Lumpur tops the low-cost carrier Megahubs ranking, making it both the most connected Megahub in Asia and the number one low-cost carrier Megahub globally. Asia-Pacific airports dominate this category, with 16 of the top 25 located in Asia and 18 in Europe and the Middle East. Low-cost carrier penetration across the Asia-Pacific region now sits at around 60%.
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
\n
\n
","postRssSummaryFeaturedImage":"","postSummary":"In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Angie Kocerka (Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Department of Aviation) to discuss which airports lead the world in connectivity and what is driving the shifts, following the live reveal of OAG's 2026 Megahubs rankings. \n","postSummaryRss":"In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Angie Kocerka (Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Department of Aviation) to discuss which airports lead the world in connectivity and what is driving the shifts, following the live reveal of OAG's 2026 Megahubs rankings. \n ","postTemplate":"OAG 2026/templates/blog/clean-pro-blog-post.html","previewImageSrc":null,"previewKey":"rSAsKPUL","previousPostFeaturedImage":"https://490937.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/490937/blog%20image.png","previousPostFeaturedImageAltText":"","previousPostName":"Africa's aviation growth story: Connectivity, capital and capacity","previousPostSlug":"webinars/africas-aviation-growth-story-webinar","processingStatus":"PUBLISHED","propertyForDynamicPageCanonicalUrl":null,"propertyForDynamicPageFeaturedImage":null,"propertyForDynamicPageMetaDescription":null,"propertyForDynamicPageSlug":null,"propertyForDynamicPageTitle":null,"publicAccessRules":[],"publicAccessRulesEnabled":false,"publishDate":1789638802000,"publishDateLocalTime":1789638802000,"publishDateLocalized":{"date":1789638802000,"format":"dd MMMM yyyy","language":null},"publishImmediately":true,"publishTimezoneOffset":null,"publishedAt":1789640220594,"publishedByEmail":null,"publishedById":72222748,"publishedByName":null,"publishedUrl":"https://www.oag.com/webinars/sept26-megahubs","resolvedDomain":"www.oag.com","resolvedLanguage":null,"rssBody":"In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Angie Kocerka (Deputy Commissioner, Chicago Department of Aviation) to discuss which airports lead the world in connectivity and what is driving the shifts, following the live reveal of OAG's 2026 Megahubs rankings. \n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Megahubs Rankings: Istanbul has risen to first place as the most connected global Megahub in 2026, serving 337 destinations in the 12 months to August 2026. With 80% of capacity in the hands of Turkish Airlines and the ability to operate three simultaneous runways, it leads on both airline coordination and infrastructure. Heathrow sits second but has no room to grow, and Amsterdam is constrained by an annual movements cap of 480,000.
\n
Capacity Trends:Global capacity has been fairly flat compared to last year. In the Middle East, most European carriers have virtually closed all their operations, impacting capacity across the region. In the US, the loss of Spirit Airlines removed 3% of domestic market capacity. With industry fuel spend forecast to be $100 billion more than originally projected at the start of the year, the outlook for airlines and airports heading into winter remains cautious.
\n
US Domestic Megahubs: Chicago O'Hare tops the US domestic Megahubs ranking, which uses a three-hour maximum connecting window. Having been first equal with Atlanta last year, Chicago has edged ahead in 2026. The airport serves 227 domestic destinations with nearly 84,000 potential connections on its busiest day. United Airlines holds the dominant position with 49% of total capacity, with a significant American Airlines presence alongside.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Middle East Dynamics: Riyadh and Jeddah are beginning to plateau in terms of growth, while Dubai and Doha continue to come back. Cairo's potential to position itself as a regional hub remains an open question, with the challenge of competing against established hubs and whether it can compete with the Ethiopian and Addis Ababa combination for African connectivity.
\n
\n
\n
Low-Cost Carrier Megahubs: Kuala Lumpur tops the low-cost carrier Megahubs ranking, making it both the most connected Megahub in Asia and the number one low-cost carrier Megahub globally. Asia-Pacific airports dominate this category, with 16 of the top 25 located in Asia and 18 in Europe and the Middle East. Low-cost carrier penetration across the Asia-Pacific region now sits at around 60%.
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
\n
\n
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In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Sean Mendis (Director, SeanMendis.com) to explore the intersection of network growth, fleet planning, financing and policy reforms in Africa today.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
African aviation growth: Africa is growing at almost double digits year-on-year, while much of the rest of the world has flatlined. Nigeria is a standout, up 36%, thanks to currency reforms, a new aircraft leasing agreement, and growing confidence from airlines looking to fly there. You can track Africa's aviation growth using our monthly data briefing for Africa)
\n
Challenges holding back African aviation: Many of Africa's barriers are self-inflicted: high taxes, red tape, and over 50 different customs borders add around 30% to the cost of running an airline compared to Europe or North America. Moving an aircraft part between Nigeria and Ghana, a 40-minute flight, can cross four different borders. Africa makes up just 2-3% of global air travel but with the right policies in place, there's a huge opportunity to change that.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
The role of regional hubs: Ethiopian Airlines dominates African aviation, with its Addis Ababa hub larger than the next three combined. Its hub-and-spoke model is the blueprint others are looking to copy. However, 70% of intercontinental capacity is still operated by non-African carriers, and physical constraints at Bole Airport are already limiting Ethiopian's ability to grow. It's a bottleneck that needs to be resolved if Africa is to compete on the global stage.
\n
\n
\n
Low-cost carriers: a missing piece:The Middle East grew LCC capacity from 10% to 25% in a decade. Africa has the same potential, but its LCC market is held back by three barriers: punishing taxation, lack of infrastructure, and financing challenges. Taxes alone on a two-hour Accra to Freetown flight exceed $400 before a single dollar reaches the airline, far more than the equivalent cost in Europe or Southeast Asia.
\n
\n
Airlines to watch: Airlink is emerging as one of the most interesting carriers on the continent. Since separating from South African Airways during COVID, they've secured a 25% Qatar Airways stake, ordered 10 Embraer E2s, and expanded routes as far as Zanzibar, Mauritius and Lagos. Nigerian carriers are also ones to watch as market conditions continue to improve.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Fleet strategy and the state ownership problem: Ethiopian stands apart through 25 years of disciplined execution. The planned Bishoftu Airport, 2,000 feet lower than Bole, could enable nonstop A350-1000 services to North America, transforming their network the way Dubai did for Emirates. In contrast, many state-backed carriers continue ordering wide bodies as vanity projects despite 90% of their populations not flying, prioritising the national flag over commercial reality. That gap in commercial discipline will likely define which African airlines thrive over the next decade.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Sean Mendis (Director, SeanMendis.com) to explore the intersection of network growth, fleet planning, financing and policy reforms in Africa today.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Sean Mendis (Director, SeanMendis.com) to explore the intersection of network growth, fleet planning, financing and policy reforms in Africa today.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Sean Mendis (Director, SeanMendis.com) to explore the intersection of network growth, fleet planning, financing and policy reforms in Africa today.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
African aviation growth: Africa is growing at almost double digits year-on-year, while much of the rest of the world has flatlined. Nigeria is a standout, up 36%, thanks to currency reforms, a new aircraft leasing agreement, and growing confidence from airlines looking to fly there. You can track Africa's aviation growth using our monthly data briefing for Africa)
\n
Challenges holding back African aviation: Many of Africa's barriers are self-inflicted: high taxes, red tape, and over 50 different customs borders add around 30% to the cost of running an airline compared to Europe or North America. Moving an aircraft part between Nigeria and Ghana, a 40-minute flight, can cross four different borders. Africa makes up just 2-3% of global air travel but with the right policies in place, there's a huge opportunity to change that.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
The role of regional hubs: Ethiopian Airlines dominates African aviation, with its Addis Ababa hub larger than the next three combined. Its hub-and-spoke model is the blueprint others are looking to copy. However, 70% of intercontinental capacity is still operated by non-African carriers, and physical constraints at Bole Airport are already limiting Ethiopian's ability to grow. It's a bottleneck that needs to be resolved if Africa is to compete on the global stage.
\n
\n
\n
Low-cost carriers: a missing piece:The Middle East grew LCC capacity from 10% to 25% in a decade. Africa has the same potential, but its LCC market is held back by three barriers: punishing taxation, lack of infrastructure, and financing challenges. Taxes alone on a two-hour Accra to Freetown flight exceed $400 before a single dollar reaches the airline, far more than the equivalent cost in Europe or Southeast Asia.
\n
\n
Airlines to watch: Airlink is emerging as one of the most interesting carriers on the continent. Since separating from South African Airways during COVID, they've secured a 25% Qatar Airways stake, ordered 10 Embraer E2s, and expanded routes as far as Zanzibar, Mauritius and Lagos. Nigerian carriers are also ones to watch as market conditions continue to improve.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Fleet strategy and the state ownership problem: Ethiopian stands apart through 25 years of disciplined execution. The planned Bishoftu Airport, 2,000 feet lower than Bole, could enable nonstop A350-1000 services to North America, transforming their network the way Dubai did for Emirates. In contrast, many state-backed carriers continue ordering wide bodies as vanity projects despite 90% of their populations not flying, prioritising the national flag over commercial reality. That gap in commercial discipline will likely define which African airlines thrive over the next decade.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
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In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Sean Mendis (Director, SeanMendis.com) to explore the intersection of network growth, fleet planning, financing and policy reforms in Africa today.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
African aviation growth: Africa is growing at almost double digits year-on-year, while much of the rest of the world has flatlined. Nigeria is a standout, up 36%, thanks to currency reforms, a new aircraft leasing agreement, and growing confidence from airlines looking to fly there. You can track Africa's aviation growth using our monthly data briefing for Africa)
\n
Challenges holding back African aviation: Many of Africa's barriers are self-inflicted: high taxes, red tape, and over 50 different customs borders add around 30% to the cost of running an airline compared to Europe or North America. Moving an aircraft part between Nigeria and Ghana, a 40-minute flight, can cross four different borders. Africa makes up just 2-3% of global air travel but with the right policies in place, there's a huge opportunity to change that.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
The role of regional hubs: Ethiopian Airlines dominates African aviation, with its Addis Ababa hub larger than the next three combined. Its hub-and-spoke model is the blueprint others are looking to copy. However, 70% of intercontinental capacity is still operated by non-African carriers, and physical constraints at Bole Airport are already limiting Ethiopian's ability to grow. It's a bottleneck that needs to be resolved if Africa is to compete on the global stage.
\n
\n
\n
Low-cost carriers: a missing piece:The Middle East grew LCC capacity from 10% to 25% in a decade. Africa has the same potential, but its LCC market is held back by three barriers: punishing taxation, lack of infrastructure, and financing challenges. Taxes alone on a two-hour Accra to Freetown flight exceed $400 before a single dollar reaches the airline, far more than the equivalent cost in Europe or Southeast Asia.
\n
\n
Airlines to watch: Airlink is emerging as one of the most interesting carriers on the continent. Since separating from South African Airways during COVID, they've secured a 25% Qatar Airways stake, ordered 10 Embraer E2s, and expanded routes as far as Zanzibar, Mauritius and Lagos. Nigerian carriers are also ones to watch as market conditions continue to improve.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Fleet strategy and the state ownership problem: Ethiopian stands apart through 25 years of disciplined execution. The planned Bishoftu Airport, 2,000 feet lower than Bole, could enable nonstop A350-1000 services to North America, transforming their network the way Dubai did for Emirates. In contrast, many state-backed carriers continue ordering wide bodies as vanity projects despite 90% of their populations not flying, prioritising the national flag over commercial reality. That gap in commercial discipline will likely define which African airlines thrive over the next decade.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
","postBodyRss":"
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Sean Mendis (Director, SeanMendis.com) to explore the intersection of network growth, fleet planning, financing and policy reforms in Africa today.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
African aviation growth: Africa is growing at almost double digits year-on-year, while much of the rest of the world has flatlined. Nigeria is a standout, up 36%, thanks to currency reforms, a new aircraft leasing agreement, and growing confidence from airlines looking to fly there. You can track Africa's aviation growth using our monthly data briefing for Africa)
\n
Challenges holding back African aviation: Many of Africa's barriers are self-inflicted: high taxes, red tape, and over 50 different customs borders add around 30% to the cost of running an airline compared to Europe or North America. Moving an aircraft part between Nigeria and Ghana, a 40-minute flight, can cross four different borders. Africa makes up just 2-3% of global air travel but with the right policies in place, there's a huge opportunity to change that.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
The role of regional hubs: Ethiopian Airlines dominates African aviation, with its Addis Ababa hub larger than the next three combined. Its hub-and-spoke model is the blueprint others are looking to copy. However, 70% of intercontinental capacity is still operated by non-African carriers, and physical constraints at Bole Airport are already limiting Ethiopian's ability to grow. It's a bottleneck that needs to be resolved if Africa is to compete on the global stage.
\n
\n
\n
Low-cost carriers: a missing piece:The Middle East grew LCC capacity from 10% to 25% in a decade. Africa has the same potential, but its LCC market is held back by three barriers: punishing taxation, lack of infrastructure, and financing challenges. Taxes alone on a two-hour Accra to Freetown flight exceed $400 before a single dollar reaches the airline, far more than the equivalent cost in Europe or Southeast Asia.
\n
\n
Airlines to watch: Airlink is emerging as one of the most interesting carriers on the continent. Since separating from South African Airways during COVID, they've secured a 25% Qatar Airways stake, ordered 10 Embraer E2s, and expanded routes as far as Zanzibar, Mauritius and Lagos. Nigerian carriers are also ones to watch as market conditions continue to improve.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Fleet strategy and the state ownership problem: Ethiopian stands apart through 25 years of disciplined execution. The planned Bishoftu Airport, 2,000 feet lower than Bole, could enable nonstop A350-1000 services to North America, transforming their network the way Dubai did for Emirates. In contrast, many state-backed carriers continue ordering wide bodies as vanity projects despite 90% of their populations not flying, prioritising the national flag over commercial reality. That gap in commercial discipline will likely define which African airlines thrive over the next decade.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
","postEmailContent":"
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Sean Mendis (Director, SeanMendis.com) to explore the intersection of network growth, fleet planning, financing and policy reforms in Africa today.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
African aviation growth: Africa is growing at almost double digits year-on-year, while much of the rest of the world has flatlined. Nigeria is a standout, up 36%, thanks to currency reforms, a new aircraft leasing agreement, and growing confidence from airlines looking to fly there. You can track Africa's aviation growth using our monthly data briefing for Africa)
\n
Challenges holding back African aviation: Many of Africa's barriers are self-inflicted: high taxes, red tape, and over 50 different customs borders add around 30% to the cost of running an airline compared to Europe or North America. Moving an aircraft part between Nigeria and Ghana, a 40-minute flight, can cross four different borders. Africa makes up just 2-3% of global air travel but with the right policies in place, there's a huge opportunity to change that.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
The role of regional hubs: Ethiopian Airlines dominates African aviation, with its Addis Ababa hub larger than the next three combined. Its hub-and-spoke model is the blueprint others are looking to copy. However, 70% of intercontinental capacity is still operated by non-African carriers, and physical constraints at Bole Airport are already limiting Ethiopian's ability to grow. It's a bottleneck that needs to be resolved if Africa is to compete on the global stage.
\n
\n
\n
Low-cost carriers: a missing piece:The Middle East grew LCC capacity from 10% to 25% in a decade. Africa has the same potential, but its LCC market is held back by three barriers: punishing taxation, lack of infrastructure, and financing challenges. Taxes alone on a two-hour Accra to Freetown flight exceed $400 before a single dollar reaches the airline, far more than the equivalent cost in Europe or Southeast Asia.
\n
\n
Airlines to watch: Airlink is emerging as one of the most interesting carriers on the continent. Since separating from South African Airways during COVID, they've secured a 25% Qatar Airways stake, ordered 10 Embraer E2s, and expanded routes as far as Zanzibar, Mauritius and Lagos. Nigerian carriers are also ones to watch as market conditions continue to improve.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Fleet strategy and the state ownership problem: Ethiopian stands apart through 25 years of disciplined execution. The planned Bishoftu Airport, 2,000 feet lower than Bole, could enable nonstop A350-1000 services to North America, transforming their network the way Dubai did for Emirates. In contrast, many state-backed carriers continue ordering wide bodies as vanity projects despite 90% of their populations not flying, prioritising the national flag over commercial reality. That gap in commercial discipline will likely define which African airlines thrive over the next decade.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Sean Mendis (Director, SeanMendis.com) to explore the intersection of network growth, fleet planning, financing and policy reforms in Africa today.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Sean Mendis (Director, SeanMendis.com) to explore the intersection of network growth, fleet planning, financing and policy reforms in Africa today.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
African aviation growth: Africa is growing at almost double digits year-on-year, while much of the rest of the world has flatlined. Nigeria is a standout, up 36%, thanks to currency reforms, a new aircraft leasing agreement, and growing confidence from airlines looking to fly there. You can track Africa's aviation growth using our monthly data briefing for Africa)
\n
Challenges holding back African aviation: Many of Africa's barriers are self-inflicted: high taxes, red tape, and over 50 different customs borders add around 30% to the cost of running an airline compared to Europe or North America. Moving an aircraft part between Nigeria and Ghana, a 40-minute flight, can cross four different borders. Africa makes up just 2-3% of global air travel but with the right policies in place, there's a huge opportunity to change that.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
The role of regional hubs: Ethiopian Airlines dominates African aviation, with its Addis Ababa hub larger than the next three combined. Its hub-and-spoke model is the blueprint others are looking to copy. However, 70% of intercontinental capacity is still operated by non-African carriers, and physical constraints at Bole Airport are already limiting Ethiopian's ability to grow. It's a bottleneck that needs to be resolved if Africa is to compete on the global stage.
\n
\n
\n
Low-cost carriers: a missing piece:The Middle East grew LCC capacity from 10% to 25% in a decade. Africa has the same potential, but its LCC market is held back by three barriers: punishing taxation, lack of infrastructure, and financing challenges. Taxes alone on a two-hour Accra to Freetown flight exceed $400 before a single dollar reaches the airline, far more than the equivalent cost in Europe or Southeast Asia.
\n
\n
Airlines to watch: Airlink is emerging as one of the most interesting carriers on the continent. Since separating from South African Airways during COVID, they've secured a 25% Qatar Airways stake, ordered 10 Embraer E2s, and expanded routes as far as Zanzibar, Mauritius and Lagos. Nigerian carriers are also ones to watch as market conditions continue to improve.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Fleet strategy and the state ownership problem: Ethiopian stands apart through 25 years of disciplined execution. The planned Bishoftu Airport, 2,000 feet lower than Bole, could enable nonstop A350-1000 services to North America, transforming their network the way Dubai did for Emirates. In contrast, many state-backed carriers continue ordering wide bodies as vanity projects despite 90% of their populations not flying, prioritising the national flag over commercial reality. That gap in commercial discipline will likely define which African airlines thrive over the next decade.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Sean Mendis (Director, SeanMendis.com) to explore the intersection of network growth, fleet planning, financing and policy reforms in Africa today.
\n","postSummaryRss":"
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Sean Mendis (Director, SeanMendis.com) to explore the intersection of network growth, fleet planning, financing and policy reforms in Africa today.
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In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Sean Mendis (Director, SeanMendis.com) to explore the intersection of network growth, fleet planning, financing and policy reforms in Africa today.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
African aviation growth: Africa is growing at almost double digits year-on-year, while much of the rest of the world has flatlined. Nigeria is a standout, up 36%, thanks to currency reforms, a new aircraft leasing agreement, and growing confidence from airlines looking to fly there. You can track Africa's aviation growth using our monthly data briefing for Africa)
\n
Challenges holding back African aviation: Many of Africa's barriers are self-inflicted: high taxes, red tape, and over 50 different customs borders add around 30% to the cost of running an airline compared to Europe or North America. Moving an aircraft part between Nigeria and Ghana, a 40-minute flight, can cross four different borders. Africa makes up just 2-3% of global air travel but with the right policies in place, there's a huge opportunity to change that.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
The role of regional hubs: Ethiopian Airlines dominates African aviation, with its Addis Ababa hub larger than the next three combined. Its hub-and-spoke model is the blueprint others are looking to copy. However, 70% of intercontinental capacity is still operated by non-African carriers, and physical constraints at Bole Airport are already limiting Ethiopian's ability to grow. It's a bottleneck that needs to be resolved if Africa is to compete on the global stage.
\n
\n
\n
Low-cost carriers: a missing piece:The Middle East grew LCC capacity from 10% to 25% in a decade. Africa has the same potential, but its LCC market is held back by three barriers: punishing taxation, lack of infrastructure, and financing challenges. Taxes alone on a two-hour Accra to Freetown flight exceed $400 before a single dollar reaches the airline, far more than the equivalent cost in Europe or Southeast Asia.
\n
\n
Airlines to watch: Airlink is emerging as one of the most interesting carriers on the continent. Since separating from South African Airways during COVID, they've secured a 25% Qatar Airways stake, ordered 10 Embraer E2s, and expanded routes as far as Zanzibar, Mauritius and Lagos. Nigerian carriers are also ones to watch as market conditions continue to improve.
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Fleet strategy and the state ownership problem: Ethiopian stands apart through 25 years of disciplined execution. The planned Bishoftu Airport, 2,000 feet lower than Bole, could enable nonstop A350-1000 services to North America, transforming their network the way Dubai did for Emirates. In contrast, many state-backed carriers continue ordering wide bodies as vanity projects despite 90% of their populations not flying, prioritising the national flag over commercial reality. That gap in commercial discipline will likely define which African airlines thrive over the next decade.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
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In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Rebecca Francosky (Director, Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) to explore the upcoming summer season in capacity and frequency terms.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Geopolitical Impact: Geopolitical disruptions can cause airlines to rapidly restructure their networks. During the latest Middle East conflict, European carriers — including British Airways — shifted capacity away from the region, redirecting flights to India, South Africa, and transatlantic routes. What's notable is just how quickly airlines can make these pivots and then reverse them when conditions improve.
\n
Regional Capacity Trends: Summer capacity comparisons show a mixed global picture. North and West Africa are seeing strong growth, while Central America, Mexico, and Canada are declining. Europe is broadly flat, partly due to airlines reconfiguring aircraft toward premium seating, with nearly 50% of seats on some aircraft now in premium or premium economy.
\n
World Cup Influence: While the World Cup has drawn large crowds locally, many attendees appear to be driving rather than flying, limiting the expected boost to air capacity and demand.
\n
Spirit Airways Impact: Spirit's collapse has reshaped competitive dynamics, particularly in Fort Lauderdale, where JetBlue was competing directly with Spirit. Almost all of Spirit's routes have been picked up by other carriers, with only the most obscure and marginal routes remaining uncovered. However, markets like Atlanta are still around 500,000 passengers down.
\n
New Route Development: Delta is set to launch Atlanta to Riyadh in October, with a partnership with Riyadh Air already in place. There is some uncertainty about long-term US to Riyadh passenger demand, but optimism that the route will proceed as planned.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Rebecca Francosky (Director, Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) to explore the upcoming summer season in capacity and frequency terms.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Rebecca Francosky (Director, Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) to explore the upcoming summer season in capacity and frequency terms.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Rebecca Francosky (Director, Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) to explore the upcoming summer season in capacity and frequency terms.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Geopolitical Impact: Geopolitical disruptions can cause airlines to rapidly restructure their networks. During the latest Middle East conflict, European carriers — including British Airways — shifted capacity away from the region, redirecting flights to India, South Africa, and transatlantic routes. What's notable is just how quickly airlines can make these pivots and then reverse them when conditions improve.
\n
Regional Capacity Trends: Summer capacity comparisons show a mixed global picture. North and West Africa are seeing strong growth, while Central America, Mexico, and Canada are declining. Europe is broadly flat, partly due to airlines reconfiguring aircraft toward premium seating, with nearly 50% of seats on some aircraft now in premium or premium economy.
\n
World Cup Influence: While the World Cup has drawn large crowds locally, many attendees appear to be driving rather than flying, limiting the expected boost to air capacity and demand.
\n
Spirit Airways Impact: Spirit's collapse has reshaped competitive dynamics, particularly in Fort Lauderdale, where JetBlue was competing directly with Spirit. Almost all of Spirit's routes have been picked up by other carriers, with only the most obscure and marginal routes remaining uncovered. However, markets like Atlanta are still around 500,000 passengers down.
\n
New Route Development: Delta is set to launch Atlanta to Riyadh in October, with a partnership with Riyadh Air already in place. There is some uncertainty about long-term US to Riyadh passenger demand, but optimism that the route will proceed as planned.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
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In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Rebecca Francosky (Director, Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) to explore the upcoming summer season in capacity and frequency terms.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Geopolitical Impact: Geopolitical disruptions can cause airlines to rapidly restructure their networks. During the latest Middle East conflict, European carriers — including British Airways — shifted capacity away from the region, redirecting flights to India, South Africa, and transatlantic routes. What's notable is just how quickly airlines can make these pivots and then reverse them when conditions improve.
\n
Regional Capacity Trends: Summer capacity comparisons show a mixed global picture. North and West Africa are seeing strong growth, while Central America, Mexico, and Canada are declining. Europe is broadly flat, partly due to airlines reconfiguring aircraft toward premium seating, with nearly 50% of seats on some aircraft now in premium or premium economy.
\n
World Cup Influence: While the World Cup has drawn large crowds locally, many attendees appear to be driving rather than flying, limiting the expected boost to air capacity and demand.
\n
Spirit Airways Impact: Spirit's collapse has reshaped competitive dynamics, particularly in Fort Lauderdale, where JetBlue was competing directly with Spirit. Almost all of Spirit's routes have been picked up by other carriers, with only the most obscure and marginal routes remaining uncovered. However, markets like Atlanta are still around 500,000 passengers down.
\n
New Route Development: Delta is set to launch Atlanta to Riyadh in October, with a partnership with Riyadh Air already in place. There is some uncertainty about long-term US to Riyadh passenger demand, but optimism that the route will proceed as planned.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
","postBodyRss":"
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Rebecca Francosky (Director, Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) to explore the upcoming summer season in capacity and frequency terms.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Geopolitical Impact: Geopolitical disruptions can cause airlines to rapidly restructure their networks. During the latest Middle East conflict, European carriers — including British Airways — shifted capacity away from the region, redirecting flights to India, South Africa, and transatlantic routes. What's notable is just how quickly airlines can make these pivots and then reverse them when conditions improve.
\n
Regional Capacity Trends: Summer capacity comparisons show a mixed global picture. North and West Africa are seeing strong growth, while Central America, Mexico, and Canada are declining. Europe is broadly flat, partly due to airlines reconfiguring aircraft toward premium seating, with nearly 50% of seats on some aircraft now in premium or premium economy.
\n
World Cup Influence: While the World Cup has drawn large crowds locally, many attendees appear to be driving rather than flying, limiting the expected boost to air capacity and demand.
\n
Spirit Airways Impact: Spirit's collapse has reshaped competitive dynamics, particularly in Fort Lauderdale, where JetBlue was competing directly with Spirit. Almost all of Spirit's routes have been picked up by other carriers, with only the most obscure and marginal routes remaining uncovered. However, markets like Atlanta are still around 500,000 passengers down.
\n
New Route Development: Delta is set to launch Atlanta to Riyadh in October, with a partnership with Riyadh Air already in place. There is some uncertainty about long-term US to Riyadh passenger demand, but optimism that the route will proceed as planned.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
","postEmailContent":"
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Rebecca Francosky (Director, Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) to explore the upcoming summer season in capacity and frequency terms.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Geopolitical Impact: Geopolitical disruptions can cause airlines to rapidly restructure their networks. During the latest Middle East conflict, European carriers — including British Airways — shifted capacity away from the region, redirecting flights to India, South Africa, and transatlantic routes. What's notable is just how quickly airlines can make these pivots and then reverse them when conditions improve.
\n
Regional Capacity Trends: Summer capacity comparisons show a mixed global picture. North and West Africa are seeing strong growth, while Central America, Mexico, and Canada are declining. Europe is broadly flat, partly due to airlines reconfiguring aircraft toward premium seating, with nearly 50% of seats on some aircraft now in premium or premium economy.
\n
World Cup Influence: While the World Cup has drawn large crowds locally, many attendees appear to be driving rather than flying, limiting the expected boost to air capacity and demand.
\n
Spirit Airways Impact: Spirit's collapse has reshaped competitive dynamics, particularly in Fort Lauderdale, where JetBlue was competing directly with Spirit. Almost all of Spirit's routes have been picked up by other carriers, with only the most obscure and marginal routes remaining uncovered. However, markets like Atlanta are still around 500,000 passengers down.
\n
New Route Development: Delta is set to launch Atlanta to Riyadh in October, with a partnership with Riyadh Air already in place. There is some uncertainty about long-term US to Riyadh passenger demand, but optimism that the route will proceed as planned.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Rebecca Francosky (Director, Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) to explore the upcoming summer season in capacity and frequency terms.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Rebecca Francosky (Director, Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) to explore the upcoming summer season in capacity and frequency terms.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Geopolitical Impact: Geopolitical disruptions can cause airlines to rapidly restructure their networks. During the latest Middle East conflict, European carriers — including British Airways — shifted capacity away from the region, redirecting flights to India, South Africa, and transatlantic routes. What's notable is just how quickly airlines can make these pivots and then reverse them when conditions improve.
\n
Regional Capacity Trends: Summer capacity comparisons show a mixed global picture. North and West Africa are seeing strong growth, while Central America, Mexico, and Canada are declining. Europe is broadly flat, partly due to airlines reconfiguring aircraft toward premium seating, with nearly 50% of seats on some aircraft now in premium or premium economy.
\n
World Cup Influence: While the World Cup has drawn large crowds locally, many attendees appear to be driving rather than flying, limiting the expected boost to air capacity and demand.
\n
Spirit Airways Impact: Spirit's collapse has reshaped competitive dynamics, particularly in Fort Lauderdale, where JetBlue was competing directly with Spirit. Almost all of Spirit's routes have been picked up by other carriers, with only the most obscure and marginal routes remaining uncovered. However, markets like Atlanta are still around 500,000 passengers down.
\n
New Route Development: Delta is set to launch Atlanta to Riyadh in October, with a partnership with Riyadh Air already in place. There is some uncertainty about long-term US to Riyadh passenger demand, but optimism that the route will proceed as planned.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Rebecca Francosky (Director, Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) to explore the upcoming summer season in capacity and frequency terms.
\n","postSummaryRss":"
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Rebecca Francosky (Director, Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) to explore the upcoming summer season in capacity and frequency terms.
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In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Rebecca Francosky (Director, Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) to explore the upcoming summer season in capacity and frequency terms.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Geopolitical Impact: Geopolitical disruptions can cause airlines to rapidly restructure their networks. During the latest Middle East conflict, European carriers — including British Airways — shifted capacity away from the region, redirecting flights to India, South Africa, and transatlantic routes. What's notable is just how quickly airlines can make these pivots and then reverse them when conditions improve.
\n
Regional Capacity Trends: Summer capacity comparisons show a mixed global picture. North and West Africa are seeing strong growth, while Central America, Mexico, and Canada are declining. Europe is broadly flat, partly due to airlines reconfiguring aircraft toward premium seating, with nearly 50% of seats on some aircraft now in premium or premium economy.
\n
World Cup Influence: While the World Cup has drawn large crowds locally, many attendees appear to be driving rather than flying, limiting the expected boost to air capacity and demand.
\n
Spirit Airways Impact: Spirit's collapse has reshaped competitive dynamics, particularly in Fort Lauderdale, where JetBlue was competing directly with Spirit. Almost all of Spirit's routes have been picked up by other carriers, with only the most obscure and marginal routes remaining uncovered. However, markets like Atlanta are still around 500,000 passengers down.
\n
New Route Development: Delta is set to launch Atlanta to Riyadh in October, with a partnership with Riyadh Air already in place. There is some uncertainty about long-term US to Riyadh passenger demand, but optimism that the route will proceed as planned.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
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In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Rebecca Francosky (Director, Air Service Development, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) to explore the upcoming summer season in capacity and frequency terms.
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In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton (MIDAS Aviation) were joined by Dmitry Martynenko (Commercial Director, Samarkand International Airport) to explore the rapid growth of Central Asia’s aviation market, highlighting key capacity trends, emerging routes, and the airlines shaping the region’s expanding connectivity.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Central Asia's aviation growth:Central Asia, despite being the smallest region in aviation terms, is the fastest-growing. The region is witnessing rapid market growth, driven primarily by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
\n
Emerging market dynamics: Central Asia is experiencing a shift with a rapidly growing population and increasing GDP, which are positively influencing the aviation market. However, there is a need for structural changes and market liberalisation to sustain growth.
\n
Market dependency: The region has a significant dependency on the Russian market, which poses a risk due to geopolitical instability. Diversification of markets is crucial for sustainable growth.
\n
Infrastructure and investment: There is substantial investment in aviation infrastructure, including new airports and fleet expansions, indicating a strong commitment to future growth.
\n
Future opportunities and challenges:Despite the challenges, there is optimism about the future due to strong fundamentals such as economic growth and tourism expansion. However, achieving this potential will require addressing regulatory issues and enhancing cross-sector collaboration.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton (MIDAS Aviation) were joined by Dmitry Martynenko (Commercial Director, Samarkand International Airport) to explore the rapid growth of Central Asia’s aviation market, highlighting key capacity trends, emerging routes, and the airlines shaping the region’s expanding connectivity.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton (MIDAS Aviation) were joined by Dmitry Martynenko (Commercial Director, Samarkand International Airport) to explore the rapid growth of Central Asia’s aviation market, highlighting key capacity trends, emerging routes, and the airlines shaping the region’s expanding connectivity.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton (MIDAS Aviation) were joined by Dmitry Martynenko (Commercial Director, Samarkand International Airport) to explore the rapid growth of Central Asia’s aviation market, highlighting key capacity trends, emerging routes, and the airlines shaping the region’s expanding connectivity.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Central Asia's aviation growth:Central Asia, despite being the smallest region in aviation terms, is the fastest-growing. The region is witnessing rapid market growth, driven primarily by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
\n
Emerging market dynamics: Central Asia is experiencing a shift with a rapidly growing population and increasing GDP, which are positively influencing the aviation market. However, there is a need for structural changes and market liberalisation to sustain growth.
\n
Market dependency: The region has a significant dependency on the Russian market, which poses a risk due to geopolitical instability. Diversification of markets is crucial for sustainable growth.
\n
Infrastructure and investment: There is substantial investment in aviation infrastructure, including new airports and fleet expansions, indicating a strong commitment to future growth.
\n
Future opportunities and challenges:Despite the challenges, there is optimism about the future due to strong fundamentals such as economic growth and tourism expansion. However, achieving this potential will require addressing regulatory issues and enhancing cross-sector collaboration.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
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In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton (MIDAS Aviation) were joined by Dmitry Martynenko (Commercial Director, Samarkand International Airport) to explore the rapid growth of Central Asia’s aviation market, highlighting key capacity trends, emerging routes, and the airlines shaping the region’s expanding connectivity.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Central Asia's aviation growth:Central Asia, despite being the smallest region in aviation terms, is the fastest-growing. The region is witnessing rapid market growth, driven primarily by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
\n
Emerging market dynamics: Central Asia is experiencing a shift with a rapidly growing population and increasing GDP, which are positively influencing the aviation market. However, there is a need for structural changes and market liberalisation to sustain growth.
\n
Market dependency: The region has a significant dependency on the Russian market, which poses a risk due to geopolitical instability. Diversification of markets is crucial for sustainable growth.
\n
Infrastructure and investment: There is substantial investment in aviation infrastructure, including new airports and fleet expansions, indicating a strong commitment to future growth.
\n
Future opportunities and challenges:Despite the challenges, there is optimism about the future due to strong fundamentals such as economic growth and tourism expansion. However, achieving this potential will require addressing regulatory issues and enhancing cross-sector collaboration.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
","postBodyRss":"
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton (MIDAS Aviation) were joined by Dmitry Martynenko (Commercial Director, Samarkand International Airport) to explore the rapid growth of Central Asia’s aviation market, highlighting key capacity trends, emerging routes, and the airlines shaping the region’s expanding connectivity.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Central Asia's aviation growth:Central Asia, despite being the smallest region in aviation terms, is the fastest-growing. The region is witnessing rapid market growth, driven primarily by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
\n
Emerging market dynamics: Central Asia is experiencing a shift with a rapidly growing population and increasing GDP, which are positively influencing the aviation market. However, there is a need for structural changes and market liberalisation to sustain growth.
\n
Market dependency: The region has a significant dependency on the Russian market, which poses a risk due to geopolitical instability. Diversification of markets is crucial for sustainable growth.
\n
Infrastructure and investment: There is substantial investment in aviation infrastructure, including new airports and fleet expansions, indicating a strong commitment to future growth.
\n
Future opportunities and challenges:Despite the challenges, there is optimism about the future due to strong fundamentals such as economic growth and tourism expansion. However, achieving this potential will require addressing regulatory issues and enhancing cross-sector collaboration.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
\n
\n
","postEmailContent":"
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton (MIDAS Aviation) were joined by Dmitry Martynenko (Commercial Director, Samarkand International Airport) to explore the rapid growth of Central Asia’s aviation market, highlighting key capacity trends, emerging routes, and the airlines shaping the region’s expanding connectivity.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Central Asia's aviation growth:Central Asia, despite being the smallest region in aviation terms, is the fastest-growing. The region is witnessing rapid market growth, driven primarily by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
\n
Emerging market dynamics: Central Asia is experiencing a shift with a rapidly growing population and increasing GDP, which are positively influencing the aviation market. However, there is a need for structural changes and market liberalisation to sustain growth.
\n
Market dependency: The region has a significant dependency on the Russian market, which poses a risk due to geopolitical instability. Diversification of markets is crucial for sustainable growth.
\n
Infrastructure and investment: There is substantial investment in aviation infrastructure, including new airports and fleet expansions, indicating a strong commitment to future growth.
\n
Future opportunities and challenges:Despite the challenges, there is optimism about the future due to strong fundamentals such as economic growth and tourism expansion. However, achieving this potential will require addressing regulatory issues and enhancing cross-sector collaboration.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton (MIDAS Aviation) were joined by Dmitry Martynenko (Commercial Director, Samarkand International Airport) to explore the rapid growth of Central Asia’s aviation market, highlighting key capacity trends, emerging routes, and the airlines shaping the region’s expanding connectivity.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton (MIDAS Aviation) were joined by Dmitry Martynenko (Commercial Director, Samarkand International Airport) to explore the rapid growth of Central Asia’s aviation market, highlighting key capacity trends, emerging routes, and the airlines shaping the region’s expanding connectivity.
\n\n
Key takeaways from the discussion:
\n
\n
Central Asia's aviation growth:Central Asia, despite being the smallest region in aviation terms, is the fastest-growing. The region is witnessing rapid market growth, driven primarily by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
\n
Emerging market dynamics: Central Asia is experiencing a shift with a rapidly growing population and increasing GDP, which are positively influencing the aviation market. However, there is a need for structural changes and market liberalisation to sustain growth.
\n
Market dependency: The region has a significant dependency on the Russian market, which poses a risk due to geopolitical instability. Diversification of markets is crucial for sustainable growth.
\n
Infrastructure and investment: There is substantial investment in aviation infrastructure, including new airports and fleet expansions, indicating a strong commitment to future growth.
\n
Future opportunities and challenges:Despite the challenges, there is optimism about the future due to strong fundamentals such as economic growth and tourism expansion. However, achieving this potential will require addressing regulatory issues and enhancing cross-sector collaboration.
\n
\n
Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton (MIDAS Aviation) were joined by Dmitry Martynenko (Commercial Director, Samarkand International Airport) to explore the rapid growth of Central Asia’s aviation market, highlighting key capacity trends, emerging routes, and the airlines shaping the region’s expanding connectivity.
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In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton (MIDAS Aviation) were joined by Dmitry Martynenko (Commercial Director, Samarkand International Airport) to explore the rapid growth of Central Asia’s aviation market, highlighting key capacity trends, emerging routes, and the airlines shaping the region’s expanding connectivity.
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In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton (MIDAS Aviation) were joined by Dmitry Martynenko (Commercial Director, Samarkand International Airport) to explore the rapid growth of Central Asia’s aviation market, highlighting key capacity trends, emerging routes, and the airlines shaping the region’s expanding connectivity.
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Key takeaways from the discussion:
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Central Asia's aviation growth:Central Asia, despite being the smallest region in aviation terms, is the fastest-growing. The region is witnessing rapid market growth, driven primarily by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
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Emerging market dynamics: Central Asia is experiencing a shift with a rapidly growing population and increasing GDP, which are positively influencing the aviation market. However, there is a need for structural changes and market liberalisation to sustain growth.
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Market dependency: The region has a significant dependency on the Russian market, which poses a risk due to geopolitical instability. Diversification of markets is crucial for sustainable growth.
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Infrastructure and investment: There is substantial investment in aviation infrastructure, including new airports and fleet expansions, indicating a strong commitment to future growth.
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Future opportunities and challenges:Despite the challenges, there is optimism about the future due to strong fundamentals such as economic growth and tourism expansion. However, achieving this potential will require addressing regulatory issues and enhancing cross-sector collaboration.
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Watch the full panel discussion below, and download the slide deck for the complete data.
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In this month's webinar, OAG Chief Analyst John Grant and Deirdre Fulton (MIDAS Aviation) were joined by Dmitry Martynenko (Commercial Director, Samarkand International Airport) to explore the rapid growth of Central Asia’s aviation market, highlighting key capacity trends, emerging routes, and the airlines shaping the region’s expanding connectivity.
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Airline catering plays a pivotal role in the aviation supply chain, ensuring that passengers are provided with in-flight meals and that airports worldwide are well-stocked with catering supplies. It is an indispensable aspect of the aviation industry that requires meticulous resource management.
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During the busiest months, the demand on airline catering is significant, placing immense pressure on suppliers to deliver exceptional service. To meet this demand, companies like gategroup - the leading airline catering and retail-on-board supplier - engage in a daily preparation process that encompasses a multitude of complex operations.
\n
John Grant (Chief Analyst at OAG) speaks to Dave Ingram, Senior Project Manager at gategroup to discuss how they manage an intricate operation and the challenges they often face. Tune in now...
Airline catering plays a pivotal role in the aviation supply chain, ensuring that passengers are provided with in-flight meals and that airports worldwide are well-stocked with catering supplies. It is an indispensable aspect of the aviation industry that requires meticulous resource management.
Airline catering plays a pivotal role in the aviation supply chain, ensuring that passengers are provided with in-flight meals and that airports worldwide are well-stocked with catering supplies. It is an indispensable aspect of the aviation industry that requires meticulous resource management.
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Airline catering plays a pivotal role in the aviation supply chain, ensuring that passengers are provided with in-flight meals and that airports worldwide are well-stocked with catering supplies. It is an indispensable aspect of the aviation industry that requires meticulous resource management.
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During the busiest months, the demand on airline catering is significant, placing immense pressure on suppliers to deliver exceptional service. To meet this demand, companies like gategroup - the leading airline catering and retail-on-board supplier - engage in a daily preparation process that encompasses a multitude of complex operations.
\n
John Grant (Chief Analyst at OAG) speaks to Dave Ingram, Senior Project Manager at gategroup to discuss how they manage an intricate operation and the challenges they often face. Tune in now...
Or search for OAG On Air on your preferred podcast provider! 🎧
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Airline catering plays a pivotal role in the aviation supply chain, ensuring that passengers are provided with in-flight meals and that airports worldwide are well-stocked with catering supplies. It is an indispensable aspect of the aviation industry that requires meticulous resource management.
\n
During the busiest months, the demand on airline catering is significant, placing immense pressure on suppliers to deliver exceptional service. To meet this demand, companies like gategroup - the leading airline catering and retail-on-board supplier - engage in a daily preparation process that encompasses a multitude of complex operations.
\n
John Grant (Chief Analyst at OAG) speaks to Dave Ingram, Senior Project Manager at gategroup to discuss how they manage an intricate operation and the challenges they often face. Tune in now...
Or search for OAG On Air on your preferred podcast provider! 🎧
\n
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Airline catering plays a pivotal role in the aviation supply chain, ensuring that passengers are provided with in-flight meals and that airports worldwide are well-stocked with catering supplies. It is an indispensable aspect of the aviation industry that requires meticulous resource management.
\n
During the busiest months, the demand on airline catering is significant, placing immense pressure on suppliers to deliver exceptional service. To meet this demand, companies like gategroup - the leading airline catering and retail-on-board supplier - engage in a daily preparation process that encompasses a multitude of complex operations.
\n
John Grant (Chief Analyst at OAG) speaks to Dave Ingram, Senior Project Manager at gategroup to discuss how they manage an intricate operation and the challenges they often face. Tune in now...
Or search for OAG On Air on your preferred podcast provider! 🎧
\n
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Airline catering plays a pivotal role in the aviation supply chain, ensuring that passengers are provided with in-flight meals and that airports worldwide are well-stocked with catering supplies. It is an indispensable aspect of the aviation industry that requires meticulous resource management.
Airline catering plays a pivotal role in the aviation supply chain, ensuring that passengers are provided with in-flight meals and that airports worldwide are well-stocked with catering supplies. It is an indispensable aspect of the aviation industry that requires meticulous resource management.
Airline catering plays a pivotal role in the aviation supply chain, ensuring that passengers are provided with in-flight meals and that airports worldwide are well-stocked with catering supplies. It is an indispensable aspect of the aviation industry that requires meticulous resource management.
Airline catering plays a pivotal role in the aviation supply chain, ensuring that passengers are provided with in-flight meals and that airports worldwide are well-stocked with catering supplies. It is an indispensable aspect of the aviation industry that requires meticulous resource management.
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Airline catering plays a pivotal role in the aviation supply chain, ensuring that passengers are provided with in-flight meals and that airports worldwide are well-stocked with catering supplies. It is an indispensable aspect of the aviation industry that requires meticulous resource management.
\n
During the busiest months, the demand on airline catering is significant, placing immense pressure on suppliers to deliver exceptional service. To meet this demand, companies like gategroup - the leading airline catering and retail-on-board supplier - engage in a daily preparation process that encompasses a multitude of complex operations.
\n
John Grant (Chief Analyst at OAG) speaks to Dave Ingram, Senior Project Manager at gategroup to discuss how they manage an intricate operation and the challenges they often face. Tune in now...
Or search for OAG On Air on your preferred podcast provider! 🎧
\n
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In this podcast, John Grant talks to Julian Roberts, President and CEO at Pascan Aviation - an independent regional carrier based in Quebec, Canada.
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The real heart of aviation is the small regional carriers, like Pascan Aviation, that provide connectivity to small cities and make sure that commercial business can continue in those communities.
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Pascan Aviation have worked their way through the pandemic and are now seizing new opportunities as they expand out from Quebec. Listen to this podcast where Julian Roberts explains the difficulties and challenges faced by regional airlines and the importance of being the \"people's regional airline\".
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Fasten your seat belt, sit back and tune in!
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You can also find the podcast on your preferred podcast provider, just search 'OAG On Air'.
In this podcast, John Grant talks to Julian Roberts, President and CEO at Pascan Aviation - an independent regional carrier based in Quebec, Canada.
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The real heart of aviation is the small regional carriers, like Pascan Aviation, that provide connectivity to small cities and make sure that commercial business can continue in those communities.
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Pascan Aviation have worked their way through the pandemic and are now seizing new opportunities as they expand out from Quebec. Listen to this podcast where Julian Roberts explains the difficulties and challenges faced by regional airlines and the importance of being the \"people's regional airline\".
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Fasten your seat belt, sit back and tune in!
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You can also find the podcast on your preferred podcast provider, just search 'OAG On Air'.
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In this podcast, John Grant talks to Julian Roberts, President and CEO at Pascan Aviation - an independent regional carrier based in Quebec, Canada.
\n\n
The real heart of aviation is the small regional carriers, like Pascan Aviation, that provide connectivity to small cities and make sure that commercial business can continue in those communities.
\n
Pascan Aviation have worked their way through the pandemic and are now seizing new opportunities as they expand out from Quebec. Listen to this podcast where Julian Roberts explains the difficulties and challenges faced by regional airlines and the importance of being the \"people's regional airline\".
\n
Fasten your seat belt, sit back and tune in!
\n
You can also find the podcast on your preferred podcast provider, just search 'OAG On Air'.
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In this podcast, John Grant talks to Julian Roberts, President and CEO at Pascan Aviation - an independent regional carrier based in Quebec, Canada.
\n\n
The real heart of aviation is the small regional carriers, like Pascan Aviation, that provide connectivity to small cities and make sure that commercial business can continue in those communities.
\n
Pascan Aviation have worked their way through the pandemic and are now seizing new opportunities as they expand out from Quebec. Listen to this podcast where Julian Roberts explains the difficulties and challenges faced by regional airlines and the importance of being the \"people's regional airline\".
\n
Fasten your seat belt, sit back and tune in!
\n
You can also find the podcast on your preferred podcast provider, just search 'OAG On Air'.
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In this podcast, John Grant talks to Julian Roberts, President and CEO at Pascan Aviation - an independent regional carrier based in Quebec, Canada.
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In this podcast, John Grant talks to Julian Roberts, President and CEO at Pascan Aviation - an independent regional carrier based in Quebec, Canada.
\n\n
The real heart of aviation is the small regional carriers, like Pascan Aviation, that provide connectivity to small cities and make sure that commercial business can continue in those communities.
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Pascan Aviation have worked their way through the pandemic and are now seizing new opportunities as they expand out from Quebec. Listen to this podcast where Julian Roberts explains the difficulties and challenges faced by regional airlines and the importance of being the \"people's regional airline\".
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Fasten your seat belt, sit back and tune in!
\n
You can also find the podcast on your preferred podcast provider, just search 'OAG On Air'.
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With the global recovery well underway it's noticeable how many destinations are adjusting their strategies and products to be more environmentally friendly and, of course, sustainable.
In this episode, John Grant talks to Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Fiji, about how the destination is changing its marketing, product offering and most importantly how it's recovering from a pandemic. For any island economy, air services are essential, and Fiji is one of the few destinations to have both a long-haul local airline and a mix of inbound international services.
With the global recovery well underway it's noticeable how many destinations are adjusting their strategies and products to be more environmentally friendly and, of course, sustainable.
In this episode, John Grant talks to Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Fiji, about how the destination is changing its marketing, product offering and most importantly how it's recovering from a pandemic. For any island economy, air services are essential, and Fiji is one of the few destinations to have both a long-haul local airline and a mix of inbound international services.
With the global recovery well underway it's noticeable how many destinations are adjusting their strategies and products to be more environmentally friendly and, of course, sustainable.
In this episode, John Grant talks to Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Fiji, about how the destination is changing its marketing, product offering and most importantly how it's recovering from a pandemic. For any island economy, air services are essential, and Fiji is one of the few destinations to have both a long-haul local airline and a mix of inbound international services.
With the global recovery well underway it's noticeable how many destinations are adjusting their strategies and products to be more environmentally friendly and, of course, sustainable.
In this episode, John Grant talks to Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Fiji, about how the destination is changing its marketing, product offering and most importantly how it's recovering from a pandemic. For any island economy, air services are essential, and Fiji is one of the few destinations to have both a long-haul local airline and a mix of inbound international services.
Or search for OAG On Air on your preferred podcast provider! 🎧
\n
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With the global recovery well underway it's noticeable how many destinations are adjusting their strategies and products to be more environmentally friendly and, of course, sustainable.
In this episode, John Grant talks to Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Fiji, about how the destination is changing its marketing, product offering and most importantly how it's recovering from a pandemic. For any island economy, air services are essential, and Fiji is one of the few destinations to have both a long-haul local airline and a mix of inbound international services.
Or search for OAG On Air on your preferred podcast provider! 🎧
\n
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","postBodyRss":"
With the global recovery well underway it's noticeable how many destinations are adjusting their strategies and products to be more environmentally friendly and, of course, sustainable.
In this episode, John Grant talks to Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Fiji, about how the destination is changing its marketing, product offering and most importantly how it's recovering from a pandemic. For any island economy, air services are essential, and Fiji is one of the few destinations to have both a long-haul local airline and a mix of inbound international services.
Or search for OAG On Air on your preferred podcast provider! 🎧
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","postEmailContent":"
With the global recovery well underway it's noticeable how many destinations are adjusting their strategies and products to be more environmentally friendly and, of course, sustainable.
In this episode, John Grant talks to Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Fiji, about how the destination is changing its marketing, product offering and most importantly how it's recovering from a pandemic. For any island economy, air services are essential, and Fiji is one of the few destinations to have both a long-haul local airline and a mix of inbound international services.
With the global recovery well underway it's noticeable how many destinations are adjusting their strategies and products to be more environmentally friendly and, of course, sustainable.
In this episode, John Grant talks to Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Fiji, about how the destination is changing its marketing, product offering and most importantly how it's recovering from a pandemic. For any island economy, air services are essential, and Fiji is one of the few destinations to have both a long-haul local airline and a mix of inbound international services.
With the global recovery well underway it's noticeable how many destinations are adjusting their strategies and products to be more environmentally friendly and, of course, sustainable.
In this episode, John Grant talks to Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Fiji, about how the destination is changing its marketing, product offering and most importantly how it's recovering from a pandemic. For any island economy, air services are essential, and Fiji is one of the few destinations to have both a long-haul local airline and a mix of inbound international services.
With the global recovery well underway it's noticeable how many destinations are adjusting their strategies and products to be more environmentally friendly and, of course, sustainable.
In this episode, John Grant talks to Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Fiji, about how the destination is changing its marketing, product offering and most importantly how it's recovering from a pandemic. For any island economy, air services are essential, and Fiji is one of the few destinations to have both a long-haul local airline and a mix of inbound international services.
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With the global recovery well underway it's noticeable how many destinations are adjusting their strategies and products to be more environmentally friendly and, of course, sustainable.
In this episode, John Grant talks to Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Fiji, about how the destination is changing its marketing, product offering and most importantly how it's recovering from a pandemic. For any island economy, air services are essential, and Fiji is one of the few destinations to have both a long-haul local airline and a mix of inbound international services.
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With the global recovery well underway it's noticeable how many destinations are adjusting their strategies and products to be more environmentally friendly and, of course, sustainable.
In this episode, John Grant talks to Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Fiji, about how the destination is changing its marketing, product offering and most importantly how it's recovering from a pandemic. For any island economy, air services are essential, and Fiji is one of the few destinations to have both a long-haul local airline and a mix of inbound international services.
Or search for OAG On Air on your preferred podcast provider! 🎧
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With the global recovery well underway it's noticeable how many destinations are adjusting their strategies and products to be more environmentally friendly and, of course, sustainable.
In this episode, John Grant talks to Brent Hill, Chief Executive Officer at Tourism Fiji, about how the destination is changing its marketing, product offering and most importantly how it's recovering from a pandemic. For any island economy, air services are essential, and Fiji is one of the few destinations to have both a long-haul local airline and a mix of inbound international services.
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On this episode of OAG On Air, Campbell Wilson - CEO at Scoot, a Singaporean low-cost airline - joins John Grant to discuss aviation's journey to recovery, his experiences and insights from a 26 year career with Singapore Airlines Group, how Scoot is responding as Asia reopens and the new opportunities that have arisen.
On this episode of OAG On Air, Campbell Wilson - CEO at Scoot, a Singaporean low-cost airline - joins John Grant to discuss aviation's journey to recovery, his experiences and insights from a 26 year career with Singapore Airlines Group, how Scoot is responding as Asia reopens and the new opportunities that have arisen.
On this episode of OAG On Air, Campbell Wilson - CEO at Scoot, a Singaporean low-cost airline - joins John Grant to discuss aviation's journey to recovery, his experiences and insights from a 26 year career with Singapore Airlines Group, how Scoot is responding as Asia reopens and the new opportunities that have arisen.
On this episode of OAG On Air, Campbell Wilson - CEO at Scoot, a Singaporean low-cost airline - joins John Grant to discuss aviation's journey to recovery, his experiences and insights from a 26 year career with Singapore Airlines Group, how Scoot is responding as Asia reopens and the new opportunities that have arisen.
Fasten your seat belt, sit back and tune in!
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On this episode of OAG On Air, Campbell Wilson - CEO at Scoot, a Singaporean low-cost airline - joins John Grant to discuss aviation's journey to recovery, his experiences and insights from a 26 year career with Singapore Airlines Group, how Scoot is responding as Asia reopens and the new opportunities that have arisen.
Fasten your seat belt, sit back and tune in!
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On this episode of OAG On Air, Campbell Wilson - CEO at Scoot, a Singaporean low-cost airline - joins John Grant to discuss aviation's journey to recovery, his experiences and insights from a 26 year career with Singapore Airlines Group, how Scoot is responding as Asia reopens and the new opportunities that have arisen.
Fasten your seat belt, sit back and tune in!
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On this episode of OAG On Air, Campbell Wilson - CEO at Scoot, a Singaporean low-cost airline - joins John Grant to discuss aviation's journey to recovery, his experiences and insights from a 26 year career with Singapore Airlines Group, how Scoot is responding as Asia reopens and the new opportunities that have arisen.
On this episode of OAG On Air, Campbell Wilson - CEO at Scoot, a Singaporean low-cost airline - joins John Grant to discuss aviation's journey to recovery, his experiences and insights from a 26 year career with Singapore Airlines Group, how Scoot is responding as Asia reopens and the new opportunities that have arisen.
On this episode of OAG On Air, Campbell Wilson - CEO at Scoot, a Singaporean low-cost airline - joins John Grant to discuss aviation's journey to recovery, his experiences and insights from a 26 year career with Singapore Airlines Group, how Scoot is responding as Asia reopens and the new opportunities that have arisen.
On this episode of OAG On Air, Campbell Wilson - CEO at Scoot, a Singaporean low-cost airline - joins John Grant to discuss aviation's journey to recovery, his experiences and insights from a 26 year career with Singapore Airlines Group, how Scoot is responding as Asia reopens and the new opportunities that have arisen.
Fasten your seat belt, sit back and tune in!
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Fasten your seat belt, sit back and tune in!
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Fasten your seat belt, sit back and tune in!
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Fasten your seat belt, sit back and tune in!
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Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
\n
Dethroning 3-time winner airBaltic was no easy task, but in 2018, Copa Airlines topped the ranking as the most punctual airline in the world with OTP of 89.79%, becoming the first-ever Latin American winner of the League.
\n
In fact, it's been a brilliant year for South America as LATAM Airlines Group came first in our Mega Airlines category with on-time performance of 85.60%, climbing a remarkable seven places and knocking Japan Airlines off top-spot. The success follows in our Medium Airports category as Panama City climbs from 3rd to 1st.
\n
We also welcome five new entrants in the Small Airports category, with Minsk going on to claim first place, but it is Japan which continues its excellent standards by winning the Large Airport and Mega Airport categories with Osaka and Tokyo Haneda respectively holding onto the top spots.
\n
With so many airlines and airports anticipating this report, it's no wonder the Punctuality League is being recognised as the world's definitive measurement of on-time performance. There's plenty of hot topics and discussions set to arise from these results, so make sure you're part of the action and download your very own copy using the form at the top of this page.
","post_body":"
Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
\n
Dethroning 3-time winner airBaltic was no easy task, but in 2018, Copa Airlines topped the ranking as the most punctual airline in the world with OTP of 89.79%, becoming the first-ever Latin American winner of the League.
\n
In fact, it's been a brilliant year for South America as LATAM Airlines Group came first in our Mega Airlines category with on-time performance of 85.60%, climbing a remarkable seven places and knocking Japan Airlines off top-spot. The success follows in our Medium Airports category as Panama City climbs from 3rd to 1st.
\n
We also welcome five new entrants in the Small Airports category, with Minsk going on to claim first place, but it is Japan which continues its excellent standards by winning the Large Airport and Mega Airport categories with Osaka and Tokyo Haneda respectively holding onto the top spots.
\n
With so many airlines and airports anticipating this report, it's no wonder the Punctuality League is being recognised as the world's definitive measurement of on-time performance. There's plenty of hot topics and discussions set to arise from these results, so make sure you're part of the action and download your very own copy using the form at the top of this page.
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Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
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Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
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Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
\n
Dethroning 3-time winner airBaltic was no easy task, but in 2018, Copa Airlines topped the ranking as the most punctual airline in the world with OTP of 89.79%, becoming the first-ever Latin American winner of the League.
\n
In fact, it's been a brilliant year for South America as LATAM Airlines Group came first in our Mega Airlines category with on-time performance of 85.60%, climbing a remarkable seven places and knocking Japan Airlines off top-spot. The success follows in our Medium Airports category as Panama City climbs from 3rd to 1st.
\n
We also welcome five new entrants in the Small Airports category, with Minsk going on to claim first place, but it is Japan which continues its excellent standards by winning the Large Airport and Mega Airport categories with Osaka and Tokyo Haneda respectively holding onto the top spots.
\n
With so many airlines and airports anticipating this report, it's no wonder the Punctuality League is being recognised as the world's definitive measurement of on-time performance. There's plenty of hot topics and discussions set to arise from these results, so make sure you're part of the action and download your very own copy using the form at the top of this page.
","postBodyRss":"
Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
\n
Dethroning 3-time winner airBaltic was no easy task, but in 2018, Copa Airlines topped the ranking as the most punctual airline in the world with OTP of 89.79%, becoming the first-ever Latin American winner of the League.
\n
In fact, it's been a brilliant year for South America as LATAM Airlines Group came first in our Mega Airlines category with on-time performance of 85.60%, climbing a remarkable seven places and knocking Japan Airlines off top-spot. The success follows in our Medium Airports category as Panama City climbs from 3rd to 1st.
\n
We also welcome five new entrants in the Small Airports category, with Minsk going on to claim first place, but it is Japan which continues its excellent standards by winning the Large Airport and Mega Airport categories with Osaka and Tokyo Haneda respectively holding onto the top spots.
\n
With so many airlines and airports anticipating this report, it's no wonder the Punctuality League is being recognised as the world's definitive measurement of on-time performance. There's plenty of hot topics and discussions set to arise from these results, so make sure you're part of the action and download your very own copy using the form at the top of this page.
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Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
\n","postSummaryRss":"
Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
\n
Dethroning 3-time winner airBaltic was no easy task, but in 2018, Copa Airlines topped the ranking as the most punctual airline in the world with OTP of 89.79%, becoming the first-ever Latin American winner of the League.
\n
In fact, it's been a brilliant year for South America as LATAM Airlines Group came first in our Mega Airlines category with on-time performance of 85.60%, climbing a remarkable seven places and knocking Japan Airlines off top-spot. The success follows in our Medium Airports category as Panama City climbs from 3rd to 1st.
\n
We also welcome five new entrants in the Small Airports category, with Minsk going on to claim first place, but it is Japan which continues its excellent standards by winning the Large Airport and Mega Airport categories with Osaka and Tokyo Haneda respectively holding onto the top spots.
\n
With so many airlines and airports anticipating this report, it's no wonder the Punctuality League is being recognised as the world's definitive measurement of on-time performance. There's plenty of hot topics and discussions set to arise from these results, so make sure you're part of the action and download your very own copy using the form at the top of this page.
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Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
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Another year, another look at on-time performance for the world's airlines and airports and 2019's edition makes for some very interesting analysis, especially as sitting on top of this year's league is a brand new winner in airline punctuality.
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Dethroning 3-time winner airBaltic was no easy task, but in 2018, Copa Airlines topped the ranking as the most punctual airline in the world with OTP of 89.79%, becoming the first-ever Latin American winner of the League.
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In fact, it's been a brilliant year for South America as LATAM Airlines Group came first in our Mega Airlines category with on-time performance of 85.60%, climbing a remarkable seven places and knocking Japan Airlines off top-spot. The success follows in our Medium Airports category as Panama City climbs from 3rd to 1st.
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We also welcome five new entrants in the Small Airports category, with Minsk going on to claim first place, but it is Japan which continues its excellent standards by winning the Large Airport and Mega Airport categories with Osaka and Tokyo Haneda respectively holding onto the top spots.
\n
With so many airlines and airports anticipating this report, it's no wonder the Punctuality League is being recognised as the world's definitive measurement of on-time performance. There's plenty of hot topics and discussions set to arise from these results, so make sure you're part of the action and download your very own copy using the form at the top of this page.
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