Low-cost airlines now account for more than a third of global capacity

09-09-23

Low-cost airlines account for 2 billion seats globally, accounting for 36 per cent of the world's scheduled seats according to a study by travel platform Mabrian Technologies, which analyses the expansion of low-cost air connectivity. 

The United States, India, Spain, China and Italy are the countries with the most low-cost seats scheduled for 2023. The study comprises an analysis of the airline schedules of 698 airlines worldwide in both scheduled and low-cost segments. The more than 2 billion seats are offered by 173 airlines in the current year. By volume of seats offered, the ranking of the largest low-cost airlines is made up of Southwest, Ryanair, Indigo, Easyjet and Spirit.

In Europe, the countries that receive the most low-cost flights, and are therefore most dependent on these low-cost airlines, are Latvia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Belgium, Slovakia, Italy, Hungary and Macedonia. In all these countries, the share of low-cost flights exceeds 70%. In Asia, the main countries where low-cost flights predominate are India, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan with a low-cost share of over 60% of all flights. In Africa, the countries receiving the most low-cost flights are Liberia, Togo, Sierra Leone, Gambia and Gabon, with the percentage of low-cost seats ranging from 52% to 64.25%.