Europe aviation market concentration increases, but much less than North America

Two airlines with similar names, but different histories and business models, ceased operations within days of each other at the end of Jan-2023.

The UK regional airline Flybe ceased to fly (and to be) on 27-Jan-2023. It had been a revival of a much older airline of the same name, which itself ceased operations in Mar-2020. The Norwegian start-up low cost airline Flyr launched in summer 2021 and ceased to fly on 31-Jan-2023.

In the week commencing 16-Jan-2023, the last week in which both airlines were still operating, they together accounted for just 0.2% of intra-European seat capacity.

Although these two exits have little impact on European market structure, intra-Europe concentration has increased since before COVID-19. The top 10 airline groups will account for 72.3% of intra-Europe seats in the first week of Jul-2023, compared with 66.8% in the equivalent week of 2019.

However, Europe capacity remains much more fragmented than intra-North America, where the top 10 groups will have 99.2% in early Jul-2023.