Commercial Aircraft Use May Drop 4% Worldwide in 2009, OAG Says

Commercial aircraft use in the average airline fleet will drop 4 percent worldwide this year from 2008 as companies trim flight schedules to match demand, according to the Official Airline Guide.
Aircraft use will be down about 7 percent in North America and 5 percent in Western Europe, OAG said today in an e-mailed statement. North American and European operators accounted for 61 percent of global aircraft use in 2008, OAG said.
Airlines are eliminating jobs, cutting routes and grounding planes to survive a slowdown that’s pushed previously profitable operators such as British Airways Plc and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. to losses. Industry capacity overall may shrink 6 percent in 2009 as carriers seek to better match available seats to ticket sales, the International Air Transport Association predicted last week.
“Scheduled airline frequency and capacity cutbacks made over the past six months will have a significant impact on planned aircraft utilization, with a corresponding short-term downturn in demand for maintenance, repair and overhaul services,” OAG Aviation’s managing director, John Weber, said in the statement.
The OAG prediction came with the group’s Commercial Aircraft Fleets and Utilization Forecast, a study that looks at likely demand for maintenance, repair and overhaul. OAG is an aviation data business.
The fleets least affected will be in China, Eastern Europe, Africa, India and Latin America, OAG said.
30/03/09 Andrea Rothman/Bloomberg

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Categories: Foreign Mar 2009, Indian Aviation- In General Mar 2009