Thomas Latt
Thursday 31st October 2013
Low cost airlines flying higher in Asia
Asia is now the engine of low-cost airline capacity
growth across the world, accounting for 80% of all new seats in the
first six months of 2013,
The figures were revealed in the analysis by Amadeus' Air Traffic solution.
Out of the 35.6 million seats that were added in the first half of
2013, Asia saw 28.9 million more seats come online to total 129.3
million seats. This represents a 28% year-on-year growth.
Countries in Asia that saw the largest rises in LCC capacity are
Indonesia (12.3 million more seats), India (three million), Thailand
(two million) and Malaysia (1.8 million).
Jakarta saw the strongest absolute leap in LCC capacity by 2.8
million seats or 44% followed by Bangkok that received 1.2 million more
seats, a 30% increase.
The Middle East region also saw strong growth in LCC capacity.
London remains the city with the largest amount of LCC seat capacity
in the world, with 14.8 million seats operating to and from the city.
Brazil's Sao Paulo trails with 10.8 million seats, followed by Jakarta with 9.4 million and Kuala Lumpur, with 8.2 million.
Alexandre Jorre, LCC specialist for Amadeus, said: "We see a natural
boom in LCC capacity across Asia, where point-to-point air travel is
largely underserved.
"However, across the mature markets of Europe and North America
capacity is constrained, which may explain why some LCCs are considering
new approaches to secure future growth."