Airlines rush to add seats for sale in Europe, global capacity up 6.4%

London (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) - Airlines are preparing for a summer holiday rush in Europe, adding an extra 2.3 million seats for sale last week, data from analyst group OAG shows Monday.

Scheduled capacity in Italy jumped 57.6% week-on-week as airlines made an extra 372,000 seats available over the week to May 31.

Other holiday favourites such as Spain and Turkey were boosted with an extra 285,000 and 271,000 seats respectively, up 24.6% and 21.8%.

With Europe turning upbeat, worldwide capacity turned a corner, adding another 4 million seats for sale to bring the global tally to 67.9 million seats, up 6.4% week-on-week.

A week earlier, global capacity slipped slightly lower.

The US, which added an extra 900,000 seats for sale last week to bring capacity of 17.64 million , is now the largest aviation market in the world, overtaking China, with capacity of 16.58 million seats.

Only three regions saw slight reductions in capacity: North East Asia, Lower South America and Southwest Pacific.

Despite the persistence of Covid-19 in Asia, crack prices for jet fuel in Singapore jumped higher Tuesday, Quantum data shows.

July paper for FOB jet and kerosene in Singapore was pegged at $4.09/b versus Brent, up $0.88/b from Monday, and marking the first rise in jet crack values since May 20.