Consultant OAG publishes its 2023 aviation report

2023 will have confirmed the recovery of air transport according to consultant OAG which analyses airline capacity in terms of the number of seats offered. As the year draws to a close, OAG reports that airlines will have marketed 5.54 billion seats. In other words, total capacity is only 3.7% lower than in the record year of 2019.before the Covid crisis.

The international air capacity are still lagging behind. They are still down by 9.9%. Or 2.125 billion seats. With 3.418 billion seats on offer in 2023, domestic capacity was up 0.6% on 2019.

In 2023, Friday 11 August was the busiest day for airlines. They will have offered 18,586,233 seats. By way of comparison, the average daily capacity over the year was 16,582,222 seats. That's 12% more than the daily average.

Which routes offered the highest capacity in terms of seats per kilometre (ASK)? Unsurprisingly, the New York JFK-London Heathrow route remains number 1, with 21.47 million seats/km. London Heathrow-Singapore with 19.46 million ASK, Los Angeles-London Heathrow with 19.179 million ASK then Dubai-London Heathrow with 16.349 million ASK, Singapore-Sydney with 13.807 million and Los Angeles-Taipei with 12.938 million.

Asia back in the top ten

Asia once again asserts itself as a driving force in air transportafter the Covid years. Of the 10 largest routes in terms of seat capacity, 7 include an Asian destination. In Europe, only London Heathrow airport features in the Top 10..

In 2023, the world's largest airline will have been Southwest Airlineswith ASK 619 billion. Cathay Pacific, for its part, has recorded the highest percentage increase in flights between 2022 and 2023.. The number of flights operated by the Hong Kong carrier will jump by 137 %, from 31,661 in 2022 to 75,161 in 2023.