Travel restrictions are gradually being eased in the Asia-Pacific region, which is still trying to get back to normal following a devastating pandemic.
OAG Schedules Analyser data shows that in July 2022, there were 164.7 million seats available to, from, and within the region, an increase of 22.6 percent over the same month last year and 16.2 percent over June 2022.
Despite this, July's total was 19.8% lower than it was prior to the outbreak.
This month, domestic markets account for 82.3 percent of the available capacity and will return to 99.5 percent in July 2019. 27.6 million seats in international capacity have dropped by 59.3 percent since June 2022, but the situation has improved since then, with an additional 3.9 million seats added.
When it comes to the top 10 busiest routes in the Asia-Pacific area in terms of planned capacity, all are domestic, with Seoul Gimpo (GMP)-Jeju taking the top spot (CJU). Overall capacity in the South Korean industry has fallen by 8.1 percent since the outbreak of the epidemic, to 1.4 million two-way monthly seats.
From fourth to second place, Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) has seen a 12.8 percent increase in the number of seats available on the Vietnamese route over the past three years.
Additionally, Hanoi and Da Nang, the host city of Routes Asia 2022, moved up from 18th to 10th place in terms of passenger traffic in July of this year. More seats are available now than they were three years ago, according to OAG data.
The Indonesian internal leisure route between Jakarta (CGK) and Denpasar (DPS), the primary entry point to Bali, also makes the top 10. This month, there are 645,602 two-way seats available, a 25.9% increase from July of last year.
As a result, Hong Kong-Taiwan Taoyuan and Tokyo Haneda-Osaka have fallen out of the top ten busiest routes, respectively falling from ninth and tenth to 52nd and 12th.
Stricter travel restrictions under COVID-19 in Singapore (SIN) have hampered Hong Kong's recovery, as may be shown by focusing primarily on international markets.
While Hong Kong has six of the top ten busiest foreign routes in July 2019, the number of Hong Kong-bound flights is down to just one. There are 1.3 million two-way seats available from the airport in July 2022, down from 8 million three years ago.
In the meantime, six of the top ten itineraries, including the busiest international service, now pass through Singapore. This month, SIN's total capacity has returned to pre-pandemic levels.
There are also new entries into the top ten, with 21.3 percent more tickets offered in the Mumbai-Dubai sector (BOM-DXB) than in July 2019, and 14.2 percent more seats offered in the Delhi-Dubai sector (DEL-DXB).
Source: OAG
