Europe aviation: air traffic recovery outpaces capacity as load factor rises

In the week of 6-Mar-2023 Europe's airline seat numbers are at 88.8% of the equivalent week of 2019, which is a shortfall of 11.2%.

This has risen from 85.5% in the first week of Feb-2023 and is Europe's strongest level apart from the fortnight around Christmas 2022.

However, Europe is still in last place in the regional ranking, albeit jointly with Asia Pacific. North America and Middle East are down by low single digit percentages compared with the equivalent week of 2019, while capacity in Latin America and Africa is up by low single digit percentages.

Of greater importance to Europe's airlines than the exact position in the recovery towards 2019 capacity levels is the demand recovery, and its performance relative to capacity.

In this respect, there is good news, according to the most recently available data. Passenger traffic at Europe's airports is now recovering ahead of capacity and European airline load factor was ahead of 2019 levels in the final two months of 2022 .