Ukraine invasion hits Europe airline bookings more than global average

Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues to stall the capacity recovery for European aviation, but the impact on airline schedules remains understated. Europe's seat capacity is down by 28.8% versus 2019 in the week of 14-Mar-2022. This is just 0.5ppts worse than last week, but it is the second week of sliding after five previous weeks of improvement.

Europe remains fifth in the regional ranking, above Asia Pacific, where capacity is down by 31.2%. Middle East capacity is down by 23.1%, Africa by 17.0%, North America by 14.0%, and Latin America by 9.6%.

Data from IATA indicate that Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted an immediate 8% week-on-week drop in global airline bookings, and bookings in Europe fell by 14%. There are signs that future schedules filed by European airlines are now contracting a little more than previously.

If bookings continue to suffer into the northern summer, European airline schedules must surely be trimmed further.