European aviation: 2022 should end better than it has started

Annual seat capacity for Europe in 2021 improved by 18.0% from 2020, but was down by 49.6% from 2019 levels. This reduction from pre-COVID capacity was again the heaviest percentage fall among world regions.

Weekly capacity levels have undergone increased volatility since the spread of the Omicron variant towards the latter part of 2021. Europe reached a pandemic era peak in the last week of Dec-2021, when capacity was only 18.7% below the equivalent week of 2019.

However, in the week of 10-Jan-2022 Europe has plunged to 38.0% below 2019 seat numbers, from -21.4% a week earlier. This returns it to the bottom of the regional rankings on this measure for the first time since late Jun-2021. Seat capacity is down by 33.2% in Africa, by 29.5% in Asia Pacific, by 29.2% in the Middle East, by 14.2% in North America, and by 11.9% in Latin America.

Nevertheless, there are grounds for optimism that - as in 2021 - 2022 will end better than it started. The world will need to get used to living with COVID-19 in 2022.