India may glide to third spot in airline seat count

OAG data places India just behind the US and China in Q2 of 2024

With around 58.8 million seats, India is projected to see a growth of 10.5 per cent in airline seat capacity during the second quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in the previous year.

This will place it in the third spot globally after the US (with 310 million seats) and China (242 million seats), according to the latest data by OAG.

India’s projected capacity in Q2 of 2024 is far higher than that of Japan, Spain, UK, Italy, Germany, Indonesia and Turkey. The country has also seen the second-highest growth in terms of seat capacity between pre-pandemic Q2 of 2019 and OAG projected Q2 of 2024. The growth is seen at 16.8 per cent, only behind China, which is expected to grow faster by 18.7 per cent.

Also, Indigo, which is at number eight in terms of seat capacity in the world, according to OAG, is projected to grow in Q2 of 2024 by 9.7 per cent. It is set to touch 32.64 million seats. The airline may see a heady growth of 50.3 per cent between pre-covid Q2 of 2019 and the projected Q2 of 2024.

That would make Indigo the fastest-growing airline among the top 10 in this period in the world. In Q2 of 2019, its seat capacity was 21.7 million seats. Its growth between Q2 of 2019 and the projected Q2 of 2024 is set to be far higher than Ryan Air (38.5 per cent) China Air (32.8 per cent) and China South Airlines (19.4 per cent).

At a global level, OAG projects that in the second quarter of 2024, airlines will touch 1.5 billion seats, up 8 per cent in the same period from the previous year. There are regions which still have not reached their pre-pandemic seating capacity. This includes Southeast Asia (projected to be down by 11.3 per cent in Q2 of 2024 over Q2 of 2019), Eastern and Central Europe (due to the Ukraine war), South Africa (the old South African Airways network needs a revamp) and Southwest Pacific.