Aviation Growth Hits All-Time High

CHICAGO, May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The global airline industry shows no sign of reducing its activities, with a 5% increase in the number of flights scheduled for May 2007 compared with the same month last year. According to the latest statistics from OAG, the world's authority on flight information, this represents an additional 113,827 flights and 17.7 million more seats available to travellers.

A total of 2.51 million flights are scheduled this month, topping the previous industry high of 2.49 million reported for August 2006. Within this global figure of all scheduled passenger flight operations, the low cost sector shows a 22% increase of over 70,000 more flights year over year and a 26% rise in the number of seats available, representing an additional 12 million low cost seats.

The figures are revealed in the latest OAG Quarterly Airline Traffic Statistics, a regular snapshot of airline activity around the world. Flight information and data solutions company OAG collates data from more than 1000 scheduled airlines, on a daily basis, which gives an overview of anticipated travel demand.

Joseph F. Laughlin, Vice President Sales commented:

"May clearly shows the continued schedule expansion in the International and low cost sectors while the America's has experienced relatively modest growth."

Regional Growth

Regionally, this month there are over 29,000 more flights within Europe offering 5.5 million more seats, an increase of 5% and 8% respectively over May 2006. Asia/Pacific continues to show strong growth within the region, with 38,000 more flights and 6.2 million more seats, increases of 8% and 9% respectively. North America, while showing a relatively modest growth in percentage terms for flights and seats at 3% for both, represents an additional 2.5 million additional seats on 26,000 more domestic flights.

Growth is especially strong within the Middle East region and for international flights to and from Africa. OAG statistics for this month show there is an increase of 13% in the number of intra-regional flights within the Middle East, representing 4,000 flights and a half million seats. International flight operations to and from Africa rose by 14%, or 3,300 flights, offering 13% more capacity, or 600,000 more seats.

Looking specifically at the low cost sector, all regions are showing steady growth year on year. Low cost airlines have scheduled 19,000 more flights (3.5 million more seats) within Asia Pacific; 17,500 more flights (2 million more seats) within North America; and 25,700 more flights (4.9 million more seats) within Europe.

Route Growth

With the imminent start of Open Skies across the Atlantic, it is interesting to note that transatlantic traffic for May 2007 shows one of the highest increases of all the major routes: up by 6%, or 1,400 more flights a month involving over 420,000 more seats.

In sheer size, the most noteworthy route showing a year on year increase is for flights between Western Europe and Africa. This month there are over 2,200 more flights scheduled between these two continents, up 13%, and over 360,000 more seats available.

Below is a chart showing a 7-year growth trend for selected regions in terms of number of flight schedules:

  Key Regions                  May-01      May-02       May-03      May-04

  Worldwide                 2,318,609   2,168,288    2,099,743   2,243,013
  To/From Africa               17,664      17,415       17,908      20,232
  Within Africa                47,406      46,789       46,294      46,693
  To/From Asia/Pacific         32,099      30,453       31,129      37,666
  Within Asia/Pacific         357,993     359,409      351,844     410,887
  To/From Central & South
   America                     49,698      45,966       46,590      52,307
  Within Central & South
   America                    200,598     194,532      172,928     171,949
  To/From Europe               68,660      63,228       62,218      72,669
  Within Europe               528,043     495,186      499,557     522,448
  To/From Middle East          20,708      18,862       20,145      24,343
  Within Middle East           24,677      23,703       23,108      25,435
  To/From North America        79,357      70,605       67,710      78,365
  Within North America      1,025,688     925,255      883,162     922,810



  Key Regions                  May-05      May-06       May-07        Growth
                                                                   07 vs. 06
  Worldwide                 2,367,951   2,399,815    2,513,642           5%
  To/From Africa               22,491      24,446       27,759          14%
  Within Africa                51,844      49,647       51,695           4%
  To/From Asia/Pacific         40,189      45,151       48,079           6%
  Within Asia/Pacific         445,483     479,550      517,685           8%
  To/From Central & South
  America                      54,577      55,336       55,437           0%
  Within Central & South
  America                     172,144     179,438      185,711           3%
  To/From Europe               78,230      84,963       90,730           7%
  Within Europe               557,321     582,536      611,746           5%
  To/From Middle East          27,029      31,247       33,720           8%
  Within Middle East           27,053      31,282       35,350          13%
  To/From North America        82,622      84,719       86,573           2%
  Within North America        961,537     914,431      940,306           3%



  Other noteworthy statistics for May 2007 vs May 2006:

  All passenger flight operations:
  --  To/From UK up by more than 8,000 flights (7%) and 1.9m seats (10%)
  --  Domestic China up by 22.9k flights (18%) and 3.2m seats (18%)
  --  To/From China up by 5.6k flights (17%) and 1m seats (12%)
  --  Indonesia domestic up by 1,700 flights (6%) and 213k seats (6%)
  --  Emerging market of Vietnam: flights to/from up by 839 flights (19%)
      and 125k seats (14%)
  --  To/From Russia up by 2,500 flights (16%) and 353k seats (16%)
  --  Healthy growth for new EU states, including:
      To/From Romania up by 800 more flights (14%) and 98k seats (16%)
      To/From Bulgaria up by 300 more flights (10%) and 44k seats (12%)

  Specific to the Low Cost sector:
  --  To/From UK up by 5,100 flights (14%) and 1.1m more seats (17%)
  --  To/From Spain up by 13.3k more flights (68%) and 2.5m more seats (77%)
  --  To/From Germany up by 10,600 flights (52%) and 2m seats (64%)
  --  62% growth in India domestic (7.2k more flights) and 1.6m more seats
      (151%)
  --  Within Brazil up 40% flights and 44% seats (4.9k flights, 800k seats)
  --  Within Malaysia up 40% flights (1,200 flights) and 59% seats (264k)
  --  To/From Morocco increase of 171% flights (932 more flights) and 172%
      seats (159k)

  Routes/Hubs
  --  Contributing to the transatlantic growth: New York JFK to/from
      W Europe has 300 more flights (up 7%) and 70k more seats (up 6%) a
      month
  --  Between Asia Pacific & Western Europe there is steady 3% growth in
      flights and seats (347 flights & 98k seats)
  --  Specifically from Hong Kong to/from Western Europe, increase of 172
      flights (15%) & 59k seats (16%)
  --  Transpacific growth is running at 2% year on year, with 167 more
      flights and 3% more seats (76k)
  --  Between Beijing and N America there are 83 more flights (16%) and 15k
      more seats (10%)
  --  Between Shanghai and N America there are 59 flights (17%) and 21.8k
      more seats (23%)
  --  Contributing to the growth between Europe and Africa, London Heathrow
      has an additional 122 flights (6%) and 31k seats (6%)
  --  Between Cairo and Europe there are 160 more flights (11%) and 20.6k
      seats (7%)


  About OAG

OAG is a global flight information and data solutions company for the passenger aviation, air cargo logistics and business travel markets. It brings together buyers and sellers of air travel and transport through the management and distribution of airline product information; the supply of corporate travel planning tools; and the promotion of travel and transport products.

OAG's business is underpinned by its data management expertise. It holds a breadth of travel related content and is best known for its airline schedules database. This holds future and historical flight details for 1,000 airlines and more than 3,500 airports. Every ten seconds a flight is updated on the OAG system. Over the coming year it will track around 28 million departures.

More information about the company, its products and its services is available on the OAG web sites http://www.oag.com/, http://www.oagdata.com/ and http://www.oagcargo.com/.

OAG is part of Commonwealth Business Media (http://www.cbizmedia.com/), a wholly owned subsidiary of United Business Media plc (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/).