Growth in low cost sector continues to soar
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This month, budget airlines plan to offer more than 58 million seats on over 392,000 flights worldwide.
This represents more than 11 million extra seats on over 66,000 more flights operated by the low cost sector – a year-on-year increase of 24% and 20% respectively.
Low cost flights now account for 16% of all flights and 20% of all seats worldwide, compared to a year ago.
In Asia-Pacific, the growth is more dramatic, which has risen from 3,900 flights and 600,000 seats six years ago, to an impressive 61,000 flights and 9.2 million seats in September this year.
As a result, the low cost market now accounts for 12% of all flights and all seats within Asia/Pacific.
According to the report, Asia continues its upward trend, with 12,500 more flights year on year, with 2.2 million more seats.
India is making a significant contribution to this growth. The latest figures for September 2007 reveal there is a 44% growth in the number of domestic low cost flights (5,700 more flights) and 75% growth in capacity of over 1.1 million seats.
Although comparatively small in actual numbers, the Middle East low cost sector is still booming, with a doubling of no-frills flights within the region to 2,200 offering more than 350,000 seats.
Busiest Low Cost Routes in the region appears to be the Melbourne/Sydney route. Following closely behind is the Mumbai/Delhi reflecting the dynamics of the rapidly expanding Indian market.
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