No quick recovery in sight for global aviation industry, says report | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

No quick recovery in sight for global aviation industry, says report | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Global airline capacity is expected to increase by less than 15 per cent this year due to travel restrictions, strict lockdowns in some countries and slow progress on the global vaccination drive, say industry reports and experts. According to the UK-based global travel data provider OAG, global airlines' capacity is unlikely to reach pre-pandemic levels before 2023 at the earliest as aviation market is still struggling to take off with full throttle. "Total capacity to the year's end is currently standing at 3.7 billion seats compared to the 3.2 billion scheduled in 2020, reflecting a 15 per cent increase in what was supposed to be the bounce-back year," said John Grant of OAG. "When compared to 2019, that would be around a 36 per cent drop, indicating we have a long way to go! Airlines this week axed another 17 million seats from their schedules to the end of the year," he said in his latest OAG report. Global airline capacity continues to be stuck just below the 80 million weekly seat mark, with a modest increase in capacity taking us back to 79 million due to major capacity hike in North East Asia. It is now very unlikely that