Financial crisis hits air travel
Updated on 08 October 2008
European air passengers will be offered even fewer flights in the last part of this year than originally announced, due to the deepening financial crisis, new figures show.
And the expected growth in the number of flights and plane seats available on transatlantic routes is not now going to happen, according to figures from travel information company OAG.
In August, OAG's analysis showed the number of flights within Europe would fall 2.7% between October and December 2008 compared with the same period last year, while the number of seats on offer would go down 2.8%.
Now OAG says that the flight figure will fall even further - to 5.0%, while seats will drop 5.6%.
The company added that its latest information indicated that capacity on transatlantic routes in the last three months of this year, which had been announced as growing by 2.0% in August, would actually fall 2.9%.
Overall, the world's airlines will offer 6.1% fewer flights between October and December than the same period last year, with the actual number of flights decreasing by 451,000, with 46.3 million fewer seats being offered.
OAG chief operating officer Steve Casley said: "Our revised analysis of scheduled airline activity reveals a number of significant changes from two months ago, reflecting the dynamic nature of the airline industry compounded by significant economic turmoil in the global financial markets."
He said European travellers faced double the number of capacity cuts identified in the August analysis.
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