Low-Cost Travel Phenomenon takes Asia's aviation industry by storm

• Asia-Pacific budget airline capacity up 70%
• Low-fare operators schedule 21,000 new flights
• Legacy carriers timetable 12% more
• Domestic air travel demand soars in India

Low-cost air travel is taking Asia by storm with massive year-on-year increases in the number of budget flights available, according to latest statistics from aviation industry analyst OAG.

Although the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions have long been at the forefront of aviation expansion, October figures show that it is the low-fare airlines that are really taking off.

Globally, airlines have this month scheduled 17 per cent more low-cost flights than in October 2005. Within the Asia-Pacific region, however, the number of budget services timetabled is 70 per cent higher, at more than 50,000 – nearly 21,000 more than last year.

Although the Middle East’s percentage increases are higher, the actual figures are substantially smaller. The number of low-cost operations to and from the region is up 89 per cent, and the figure for services within the Middle East is 60 per cent higher – but the combined total still comes to less than 2,300 flights.

“Asia’s airline entrepreneurs have been comparatively slow to adopt the low-cost business model,” says Fred Seow, Vice President OAG Asia, “but it is clear that, having adopted it, they have tapped into a rich seam of consumer demand.

“The great aspect, from an industry point of view, is that the full-service airlines are also in strong demand.”

According to OAG’s latest Quarterly Airline Traffic Statistics, a regular snapshot of airline activity around the world, the overall number of October services to and from the Asia-Pacific region is 12 per cent higher than last year, while the figure for flights within the region is seven per cent higher.

In global terms, the worldwide total of more than 2.4 million flights – the highest October figure since 9/11 – is three per cent higher than in October 2005.

OAG, which collates data from more than 1000 scheduled airlines on a daily basis to give an overview of anticipated travel demand, says the number of intercontinental flights to and from the Middle East is 15 per cent higher; the figures for Africa and Europe are up 11 per cent and nine per cent respectively.

Aviation growth in the Americas remains sluggish. October 2006 sees a two per cent increase in the number of flights to and from the USA and Canada, and a two per cent decrease in flights to and from Central and South America.

Within Asia, the biggest gains were in India, where a 14 per cent increase in international operations was topped by a 46 per cent growth in domestic air capacity. China’s capacity, both internationally and domestically, is ten per cent up.

Although there has only been a two per cent increase in trans-Pacific services, the number of flights between Asia-Pacific and Europe is nine per cent higher.

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