European aviation recovery hits new high; international capacity is key

Europe's capacity recovery has reached a new pandemic-era high, in terms of the percentage change in weekly seat numbers from the equivalent week of 2019.

Europe's seat capacity shortfall of -15.6% versus 2019 levels in the week commencing 2-May-2022 is its best week on this measure since before the COVID-19 crisis.

However, Europe remains fifth in the regional ranking, above only Asia Pacific, where capacity is down by -34.0%. The other four regions are all closer to 2019 levels than at any time since the onset of the pandemic: Middle East capacity is down by -10.8%, while North America capacity is down by -10.7%, Africa by -9.6%, and Latin America by -2.8%.

Europe's seat capacity recovery since late Jan-2022 has mainly been driven by recovering international capacity. International capacity's share of total Europe seats is not yet back to pre-COVID levels, but will remain a key indicator of the overall recovery.