The recovery of the aviation industry is well underway, but for the majority of the world, flights are still operating at a lower capacity than they were pre-pandemic. However, that's not the case for everywhere. Four regions have seen capacity increase beyond levels last seen in 2019, according to the latest frequency and capacity statistics released by OAG. Let's take a look at the regions.

Central and Western Africa

According to OAG, June 2022 sees 2,965,975 seats offered by airlines in the Central and Western Africa region. This is 21.8% more than in June 2019, although it's slightly down from the numbers for May this year.

Central Asia

For Central Asia, airlines are offering 1,956,759 seats in June 2022. This is up 12.9% from the same month in 2019, and represents an increase of 2.1% since May.

Central America

The Central America regions is one of the biggest in terms of seat capacity this June outside of Europe, the Middle East and North America. In all, airlines will be flying some 10,492,486 seats this June, an increase of 5% over June 2019. However, this capacity has slipped 1.5% since May.

Upper South America

The northern segment of the South American region has increased flying this June by 4.5% compared to June 2019. WIth 7,585,387 seats flown, this is a slight decrease on May 2022 of 1.8%.

The global picture

Overall, seat capacity this June sits at just over 423 million. This is still down 14.2% on the number of seats flown in June 2019, but is up 6.7% from the capacity in May. Indeed, some 26 million seats were added in June compared to May. Things are definitely moving in the right direction.

Other regions are showing strong growth this June, notably North East Asia. Since May, the easing of lockdowns - particularly in China - have seen capacity surging to 27.6% higher than in May. Other regions with significant capacity increases month-on-month include Eastern and Central Europe (up 16.3%), and Western Europe (up 5.1%).

Compared with 2019, a number of regions are getting within a hair's breadth of meeting the same capacity. South Asia has just about the same number of flights in June this year as it did in June 2019, with over 20 million seats. Others are getting close, including:

• North America - down 8.4% on June 2019
• North Africa - down 10.5% on June 2019
• Eastern Africa - down 11% on June 2019
• Western Europe - down 11.8% on June 2019.

The region with the most capacity to get back is South East Asia. Its 29 million seats flown this June are still 33.4% fewer than the situation in 2019, although it has picked up a percentage point from May's capacity. Other regions still lagging behind are Southern Africa (down 26.3%), North East Africa (down 20.2%) and Eastern/Central Europe (down 20%).

Source: OAG