North Asia Airline Outlook: Rapid growth set to continue in 2019

North Asia has enjoyed spectacular growth over the past several years. While China has clearly led the way, South Korea and Taiwan have also grown rapidly, and even Japan has had a resurgence in the past few years.
LCCs have finally started to penetrate the North Asian market, helping to drive the rapid growth as lower fares have stimulated demand. LCC capacity in North Asia has increased tenfold over the past 10 years, albeit on a small base, and has nearly doubled in just three years.
North Asia's LCC penetration rate is still less than 20%, indicating that there is still plenty of opportunity for further LCC growth. LCCs are planning more rapid expansion in 2019 but the region's FSCs are also growing, particularly in China. The outlook is relatively bright for the North Asian airline sector, even with political instability and the US-China trade war.