Global airline capacity rises 1.6% as Middle East falls 7.8%
Global airline seat capacity rose 1.6% in October, adding 8.3 million seats, while Middle East capacity fell 7.8%, a loss of 1.9 million seats.
Global scheduled airline seat capacity rose 1.6% in October 2026 from the same month in 2025, an increase of 8.3 million seats, according to aviation analytics firm OAG.
Growth came mainly from Northeast Asia, which added 2.8 million seats, and North America, which added 2.5 million. Central and Western Africa recorded the highest percentage growth globally, up 18.4% to 3.5 million seats, followed by Central Asia at 11.6% and North Africa at 11.4%.
Middle East capacity, by contrast, fell 7.8%, a loss of 1.9 million seats, because of continuing regional instability. Emirates' international available seat kilometres fell 5.0% and Qatar Airways' fell 3.1%, while Emirates remained the world's largest carrier on that measure at 31.1 billion available seat kilometres.
Among airlines, Lufthansa's frequency fell 11.6%, Turkish Airlines 3.5% and British Airways 2.7%, while Air China grew 13.5% in international available seat kilometres, Etihad Airways 11.6% and LATAM 11.3%. Canada posted 6.4% and Indonesia 5.1%, the strongest growth among top domestic markets.
What do these terms mean?
Scheduled seats: The total number of seats airlines offer for sale on flights listed in their schedules, used to measure supply in the travel market.
Available seat kilometres: A capacity measure that multiplies available seats by the distance flown, known as ASK.
Load factor: The share of seats sold out of total seats available, measuring how full aircraft are.
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