European aviation: Wizz Air & Ryanair exceed pre-crisis fleets

Europe has undergone a capacity slump since the end of 2021, prompted by increased travel restrictions in response to rising COVID-19 case numbers.

Seat numbers for Europe are 39.9% below 2019 levels in the week of 17-Jan-2022. This represents a decline of 2.0ppts over the week of 10-Jan-2022 and 21.3ppts over the past three weeks.

Europe is still at the bottom of the regional capacity recovery ranking.

Africa capacity is down by 33.6%, Asia Pacific by 30.5%, the Middle East by 28.8%, Latin America by 15.8%, and North America by 12.6%.

However, there are already signs that travel restrictions are easing as confidence grows that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is not leading to a commensurate increase in hospitalisations and deaths. This is good news for airline bookings and capacity.

Nevertheless, analysis of data from the CAPA Fleet Database still shows that Europe's total fleet has not yet recovered its pre-crisis size, particularly if only aircraft in service are counted. The leading exceptions are the ultra-LCCs Wizz Air and Ryanair, both of which now have bigger fleets than before the pandemic.