During the summer season that starts at the end of March and will run until the end of October, the member airlines of the Association of European Airlines (AEA) will increase their seat offer by 2.2 %. They will add 4.8 million seats on the intra-European market and 2.8 million seats to destinations beyond Europe.
Percentage wise, the largest long haul expansion areas are the Caribbean, the Middle East and Central America.
According to their Summer timetables 2015, the 29 AEA member airlines intend to operate 2.4 million flights. This is an increase of 1.1% compared to the Summer season of 2014. In total 349 new city pairs will be inaugurated. For Summer 2015 most of the carriers focus more than before on new destinations with a high leisure profile.
Within Europe
AEA member airlines have scheduled 2.1 million intra-European flights (+ 0.8 %). With an average seat count per flight of 137, this equates to more than 280 million seats on offer in the Summer 2015 timetable.
Beyond Europe
Some 77 million scheduled seats to non-European destinations are on sale for the upcoming Summer Season. The largest rate of expansion is on the longer routes, with a 2.8% increase in flights, spread over 57 new connections between Europe and overseas destinations. Most important countries beyond Europe served by direct non-stop flights by AEA members are USA, China, Brazil and Japan.
European Mobility
“Once more our AEA member airlines make serious efforts to further improve connectivity by air within Europe and between Europe and other parts of the world”, says AEA’s CEO Athar Husain Khan. “By doing so they actively contribute to Europe’s mobility, economic growth and competitiveness. Because of the fuel price fluctuations and the slow economic growth, trading conditions remain rather challenging. We look forward to working with the European Commission on the announced aviation package which will hopefully address some of the unnecessary burdens our airlines are struggling with.“
