Seat Capacity up Six Percent for Summer 2017
Europe and the USA may both be experiencing more than usual political uncertainty, says the airline network news publication anna.aero, but it seems like the demand to travel between the two is on the rise, at least based on anna.aero’s review of the number of new services that will be on offer this summer. According to its analysis of current schedule data for 2017 and comparing it with 2016, it identified 51 new services that will be on offer to passengers. However, airlines have also withdrawn 23 services between Europe and the USA since last summer, leaving a net gain of 28 services.
Anna.aero’s analysis of seat capacity for this summer shows that the three legacy U.S. carriers—American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines—remain the three biggest, with British Airways and Lufthansa the two biggest European carriers. Overall seat capacity across all carriers is up 6 percent, but none of the five leading carriers have changed their capacity (either up or down) by more than three percentage points. European flag-carriers are joined by three non-flag carriers in the Top 15. Two of these three (airberlin and Norwegian), are the fastest-growing among the Top 15.
