European airline capacity falls the most since first wave of COVID-19

Europe's airlines are operating 2.3 million fewer seats in the week of 11-Jan-2021 compared with the previous week, which is a decline of 22.6%. This is the biggest week-on-week percentage fall since the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Jun-2020.

Europe's capacity this week is down by 70.9% from 2019 levels (the last full year before the crisis. This is easily the biggest fall of all world regions. Middle East capacity is down by 56.6%, Africa by 47.6%, North America by 46.9%, Latin America by 39.8%, and Asia Pacific by 36.7%.

For all regions, apart from the Middle East, these rates are worse than last week. COVID case numbers are rising again in Europe and in much of the rest of the world. Concerns over new strains of the virus are also increasing. Lockdown/travel restrictions have tightened and airlines are scaling back capacity plans.

Until vaccination programmes are more widely available and taken up (and shown to be effective), it seems likely that Europe's airline capacity may slide further.