OAG, the global leader in aviation intelligence and a UBM Aviation brand, this week released the results of the OAG World Crisis Analysis, which calculated the impact that events such as terrorism, pandemics and natural disasters have had on global airline capacity over the past 30 years. The analysis shows that global airline capacity has grown on average 3.1 per cent per year since 1979, and that air travel is largely immune to regionalised events such as natural disasters, conflicts, and fuel price spikes. In fact, in the vast majority of crises, there was a negligible impact in global airline capacity, and at a regional level capacity dropped less than 4 per cent and recovered within three months.
“The OAG World Crisis Analysis shows how quickly the aviation industry responds and adapts in the face of almost any disaster, which is reassuring news for world markets and the ancillary industries that depend on aviation,” said Peter von Moltke, Chief Executive Officer, UBM Aviation. “Informed by sound historical data and analytics that provide a reliable picture of how external factors affect passenger demand, airlines are able to quickly adjust their flight capacities based on market needs, thus mitigating the impact of crises.”
Major findings of the report include:
From 1979 to September 11, 2001, world airline capacity was steadily increasing at an average of 5 per cent, or 94 million seats, per year.
Since the 9/11 World Trade Centre attacks, world capacity has steadily grown an average of 2.6 per cent, or 81 million seats, per year.
The World Trade Centre attacks in 2001 and the Global Banking crisis of 2008-2009 are the only two events since 1979 that caused significant decreases in global air capacity, averaging a 3 per cent and 9 per cent drop in capacity and recovering within 36 months and 24 months respectively.
Regionalised events such as the Gulf Wars, swine flu and volcanic eruptions caused on average less than a 4 per cent drop in regional airline capacity that recovered within three months or less, with a negligible impact on global capacity.
Continued growth in air capacity is being driven mainly by Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, Middle East and China, where growth of the middle class and personal wealth is contributing to increased air travel demand.
“After analysing OAG’s capacity data from the last three decades, we were astonished at the airline industry’s resiliency in times of crisis. One would have thought that tragic events in recent years would have dramatically affected air travel capacity for long periods of time, but that simply has not been the case, with only the World Trade Centre attacks and Global Banking crises causing major disruptions,” said Mario Hardy, Vice President – Asia Pacific, UBM Aviation. “Difficult lessons learned from past tragedies have been taken to heart and put to good use by the aviation industry, which is poised to continue growing for the foreseeable future.”
A more detailed review of the OAG World Crisis Analysis – including information, commentary and charts about specific events and regions worldwide – is available to download here
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