Europe's aviation capacity now 88% of 2019 levels; schedules stabilise

Europe's aviation capacity recovery from the COVID-19 crisis has reached another new high after three successive weeks of increases in seat numbers as a percentage of the equivalent week of 2019.

Europe's seat capacity has reached 87.5% of 2019 levels in the week commencing 30-May-2022, or in other terms - a shortfall of 12.5% compared with the equivalent week 2019. This is its best performance on this measure since before the crisis.

Europe has moved above Middle East into fourth in the regional ranking, also above Asia Pacific, where capacity is down by -35.7%. Middle East capacity is down by -15.6%, while North America capacity is down by -9.0%, Africa by -5.5%, and at the top of the ranking: Latin America by -4.7%.

There are signs that capacity projections for Europe are becoming more stable, but also that the capacity recovery may level out in 3Q2022 (as a percentage of 2019 levels). Moreover, the passenger traffic recovery is still behind the seat capacity recovery in Europe, but the gap appears to be closing.