United Kingdom
United States
Asia Pacific
Air travel on the mend
Heathrow and Frankfurt airports are now operating the same number of transatlantic flights as this time last year.
According to OAG, a review of airline schedules for August shows that air travel in the US and the UK is increasing, although the US remains slower to recover.
Despite growth at Heathrow, flights to and from the UK are down 2% this month, compared with this time last year. UK domestic flights have increased by 3%, buoyed by the growth of no-frills carriers. OAG’s marketing director, Lynne Fraser, said: “It is encouraging to see that air traffic is increasing again and in some cases reaching pre-September 11 levels, particularly within the regions. In the UK, the intense competition from low cost carriers may account for the increase in domestic flights.”
Despite the growth of air traffic in the UK, the number of flights from Gatwick is down 2.7% from August 2001, a consequence of carriers consolidating their services at Heathrow.
According to OAG, which collates schedule data on the world’s airlines, the number of flights worldwide is just 4% below pre-September 11 levels. In the US the number of flights to and from the country are down 8%, and domestic flights are down 7%. This is an improvement on its lowest point, just after 11 September, when international and domestic flights were down 16% in the US.
Ms Fraser said: “The information the airlines provide to our database confirms that the US market is still the hardest hit, but the situation does appear to be slowly improving.” Flights from New York’s JFK are still down 15%, while flights from Los Angeles are down 21% from August 2001.
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