Global airline capacity is showing marginal
growth for August 2009, the first month of positive growth for a year,
reports OAG, (www.oagaviation.com), the world’s leading aviation data
business, as it releases its monthly report on trends in the supply of
airline flights and seats.  The world’s airlines have 314.2 million
seats on offer this month, a rise of 0.2% (472,839 more seats) over
August 2008 levels.

David Beckerman, vice president OAG Market Intelligence, said,
“After a year of capacity cutbacks, it is encouraging to see positive
numbers in the year on year comparisons.  August is traditionally one of
the busiest months for air travel, and it will be interesting to see if
the steady upward trend we have seen since May continues once the summer
vacation season draws to a close.”

Frequencies remain down compared to August 2008, however.  The world’s
airlines have scheduled a total of 2.53 million flights for August 2009,
down by 2% (52,043 fewer flights) compared with the same month last
year. Last month, the year on year global frequency figure was down by
3% and capacity was down by 1%.

The month by month trend since the start of the economic downturn can be
seen in chart format at http://www.oagaviation.com/trends-chart-aug.jpg.

The figures are revealed in the August 2009 edition of OAG FACTS
(Frequency & Capacity Trend Statistics), the dynamic monthly market
intelligence tool providing the latest data on current passenger airline
activity around the world.

OAG FACTS uses interactive graphs to display a visual trend of the
performance of a specific airport, route, country or region from 2001
onwards, sourced from OAG’s consolidated database of global airline
schedules.  A more detailed review of this month’s OAG FACTS statistics
- including information about specific regions, routes and airports with
illustrative charts and graphs - is available to download at
www.oagaviation.com/aviation-reports/reports-facts-0809.htm.

OAG provides the industry’s most accurate single source of airline
information, with essential aviation workflow data and analytics sourced
from its comprehensive proprietary airline schedules, fleet and MRO
(maintenance, repair and overhaul) databases.  OAG is a leading brand of
UBM Aviation, a global data and information business for the air
transport industry.  For more information visit www.ubmaviation.com