Only half of America’s top 30 airports reporting capacity growth; Charlotte only airport growing more than 10%
US Airways celebrates at Charlotte – some of the recent launches to Rio, Honolulu and Melbourne FL which have involved the airline increasing seat capacity by 12%.
A comparison of airline schedule data across America’s 30 busiest airports reveals that exactly half of them are reporting capacity growth. Overall, when summed across all 30 airports, scheduled seat capacity is up just 0.4% for the first week in August compared with the same period last year. Four airports have seen capacity increases of more than 5% (Charlotte, Baltimore/Washington, Miami and Orlando) while four have reported capacity reductions of at least 5% (Honolulu, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Chicago Midway).
Charlotte’s impressive growth can be attributed to US Airways increasing seat capacity at the airport by 12% and raising the number of destinations served non-stop from 126 to 134. The new routes comprise Baton Rouge, Honolulu, Melbourne (Florida), Ottawa, Puerto Vallarta, Rio de Janeiro, Rome Fiumicino and San Jose Del Cabo (Mexico); three new domestic routes and five new international routes.
Source: OAG Max Online for w/c 2 August 2010 and w/c 3 August 2009
Among the 10 airports ranked 31st to 40th, only one (Milwaukee, with growth of 13.3%) is reporting capacity growth. As a result, total capacity growth across the top 40 airports is just 0.1% compared with a year ago.
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US Airways has long since discontinued its Charlotte-Honolulu route.