Europe's airline capacity recovery takes a breather; load factor to benefit

Europe's capacity recovery is taking another pause for breath.

After reaching a pandemic-era high of 87.5% of 2019 levels two weeks ago at the beginning of Jun-2022, Europe's seat capacity has slipped back to 85.7% in the week commencing 13-Jun-2022, or a shortfall of -14.3% against the equivalent week 2019.

Europe remains fourth in the regional ranking, above Asia Pacific, where capacity is down by -26.7%, and the Middle East, where capacity is down by -20.6%. Africa capacity is down by -13.2%, North America is down by -9.4%, and Latin America by -8.6%.

Monthly passenger load factors reported by IATA as at Apr-2022 were closer to levels achieved in the equivalent month of 2019 levels than at any time since before the pandemic.

Flight cancellations, albeit at lower rates than headlines imply, are likely to keep capacity from making a further jump as a percentage of 2019 levels for now, but may give further impetus to load factors.