Airline frequency and capacity statistics

Air travel data from the experts

June 2026

Which is the biggest airline in the world? Which country pairs have most capacity this month? How many flights are there per day, worldwide and what are the latest airline statistics? And how many airlines and airports are in operation? Our Airline Frequency and Capacity Statistics answer all these questions and more with key facts and figures about air travel and global capacity, using flight data from OAG's Schedules Analyser; a cutting-edge platform for airline schedule analysis. 

 

Key Points From June's Airline Frequency and Capacity Data:

  • Global capacity growth is still negative, 0.4% behind June 2025.
  • The Middle East has improved its position slightly. In June capacity is 17.6% behind the level seen in the same month last year. In May this number was 24.3%.
  • The reductions in the Middle East are nearly offset by growth in Europe, where there are 3.8 million more seats this year vs last June.
  • Ryanair, Alaska Airlines and United Airlines all see strong frequency growth.

This month, schedules data for Middle East airlines — including Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad — reflects airlines' plans at the point schedules were filed and is likely to be subject to change.

Scheduled flight counter
16472809

 Flights in the schedule 29th December 2025 - 7th June 2026

Our flight frequency counter shows the number of (one-way) flights in the schedule from Monday 29th December 2025* to the end of the current week. With 16,472,809 flights in total to the end of this week, the average number of commercial flights per day is  102,955.

*The 'year' runs from Monday 29th December 2025 when week one of the schedule starts.

Weekly airline capacity data

How much airline capacity is scheduled this week?

This chart shows the most recent weekly global (domestic + international) , domestic and international airline capacity. The dotted line represents capacity in the airlines' future schedules for the next 11 weeks, helping you monitor changes in worldwide airline capacity.  

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Airline and airport count

 How many airlines are there in the world?

  • In June 2026, there are 729 airlines operating worldwide.
  • There are currently 3,955 airports in operation. 

Top twenty airlines (frequency)
  • Alaska Airlines continues to show strong frequency growth with 17.9% more flights year on year.
  • Across the US majors, only United is seeing strong growth, up by 5.1% year on year, while American has seen growth of 2.4% and Delta Air Lines remains flat at just 0.2% ahead of June 2025.
  • Meanwhile in Europe, Ryanair continues to grow, up 6.8% this month compared to last June, while easyJet are also growing in terms of frequency, although at a more measured 2.8%.  
  • Two major European carriers are seeing frequency contract significantl: Deutsche Lufthansa down by 11.8% due to the closure of Cityline, and Air France is down by 7.2%. 

Top twenty international airlines (ASKs) 
  • Emirates frequency is down by 15.1% this month, while Qatar Airlines is also at a similar level of 16.% behind last June, a significant improvement on last month.
  • Etihad has exceeded last year's ASKs with growth of 11.1% on last June this month.  Strong ASK growth is taking place amongst other carriers; the LATAM Airlines Group was up by 9.6% year on year, and Ethiopian by 9.1%.

Domestic markets

Where is most domestic air capacity this month?

  • There is mixed performance amongst the world's largest domestic markets this month.  The USA, India, Japan and Australia are all contracting, by between 1-3%, and China is almost flat, with just an 0.5% uplift in capacity year on year.  
  • Strongest growth comes from Canada, with an increase of 2.5% year on year, and Turkiye, growing by 2.2%. 

Top twenty country pairs for travel

 

Which two countries visit each other most?

  • Growth trends remain similar this month to last month, with Japan - S Korea continuing to exhibit strong growth, up 14.3% this month.  
  • Strong growth continues too in Europe's largest leisure markets, with Spain-UK up by 8.2%, which is almost 0.5m more seats than last June, and strong growth from Italy-Spain which is up 11.9%, Italy - UK up 10.9% and Greece- UK, up 7.9%.  
  • India's largest international market, to the UAE remains impacted by the war with capacity down by 14.9% year on year, equivalent to 340,000 fewer seats. 

Airline capacity by region

 

Which world region has most airline capacity?

  • In June, global capacity has fallen below the same month last year, by 2.1 million seats, equivalent to a drop of 0.4%.  
  • Middle East capacity has improved on last month's position and is now 17.6% below last June, vs 24.3% last month, but this is still a drop in 4.1 million seats.
  • This is almost being offset by growth across Europe, where there are 3.8 million more seats this year vs last June. Strong growth also remains in Central Asia, where capacity is up 9.3% year on year, and in Central/Western Africa, where growth has reached 15% year on year.  
  • Markets seeing capacity fall include North America, where there is a 1.2% drop in capacity, largely due to the collapse of Spirit Airlines, and South Asia, down 3.8% as carriers scale back on growth in India. 

FAQs about airline frequecy and capacity stats

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