ALTA, the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association, in cooperation with OAG, released its 2009 Latin America and Caribbean Capacity Analysis.

Among the many notable facts included in the report are:

• Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo is still the busiest city pair in the whole region with more than double the capacity of the second city pair, Mexico City-Monterrey. There are, on average, 86 daily roundtrip flights between the two city’s airports.

• Panama City airport (PTY) was the fastest growing airport in Latin America in terms of international added flights with 5,901 more departures than last year.

• Toluca’s airport in Mexico was the fastest growing airport in the region for domestic flights with 16,469 additional departures (530% over last year).

• The fastest growing city pair in the Caribbean was Port of Spain-Tobago with 361,082 additional seats (972%) over last year.

• Capacity at Belize (BZE) plummeted between 2007 and 2008, with a reduction of 12,753 flights, or 50% of the total.

• New York-San Juan, Puerto Rico is the city pair with the largest capacity loss (in terms of seats); there were 159,305 less seats available in 2008 than in 2007, a decline of 14%.

“This compilation of important data is further evidence of the continued growth trend for numerous Latin America and Caribbean destinations, as well as the industry as a whole,” de Gunten added.

The upbeat report is good news for a travel industry, which is reducing overall capacity, as the passenger count remains anemic during the continued business downturn.

For example, passenger revenue based on a sample group of U.S. carriers fell 21 percent in July compared with the same month a year ago, according to the Air Transport Association. It was the ninth consecutive month in which passenger revenue has fallen from the prior year. Four percent fewer passengers traveled on U.S. airlines in July.

Revenue declines extended beyond the U.S. to trans-Atlantic, trans-Pacific and Latin markets.

“The fact is that the number of air travelers continues to fall despite double-digit declines in fares," said ATA chief executive James May.

And ATA predicted that the number of passengers on U.S. airliners during the Labor Day holiday would fall 3.5 percent year-over-year, meaning that only 16 million passengers would travel globally on U.S. air carriers during the eight-day 2009 Labor Day holiday period, a decline of approximately 3.5 percent from the 17 million passengers estimated to have traveled on U.S. airlines during the same period last year.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said scheduled traffic results for July showed passenger demand declining 2.9% compared to the same month in the previous year.

“Demand may look better, but the bottom line has not improved. We have seen little change to the unprecedented fall in yields and revenues. The months ahead are marked by many uncertainties, including the price of oil. The road to recovery will be both slow and volatile. In the meantime, the industry remains in intensive care,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and CEO.

The ALTA/OAG analysis identifies the top and fastest growing airports (in terms of flights) and city pairs (in terms of available seats) across the region, and is organized in such a way that it allows readers to quickly find and discriminate information on international, domestic and total flights.

Besides the fastest growing airports and city pairs, the 2009 edition also includes the slowest growing in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The updated analysis contains detailed information that is organized by geographical areas in Latin America and the Caribbean, including: Top Airports, Fastest Growing Airports, Top City Pairs and Fastest Growing City Pairs.

The data for the 2009 analysis was supplied by OAG, a global content management company specializing in travel and transport with the world’s largest flight schedules database.

ALTA (www.alta.aero) was founded in 1980 as a non-profit airline association. Its 37 member carriers have total revenue of more than $21 billion, operate more than 800 aircraft and employ more than 70,000 workers.

The free report is a comprehensive compendium of air transport statistics, including a ranking of the most important airports and city pairs in the region in terms of volume and growth.

The analysis includes information on 509 airports and 2,252 city pairs from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and compares overall 2008 figures with 2007, as well as the average annual growth rates between 1998 and 2008.

The comprehensive study provides a detailed perspective on trends in the Latin America and Caribbean aviation industry, said ALTA Executive Director Alex de Gunten. “We are confident that this will continue to be a useful tool for those doing research and business in the region.”

The complete 2009 Latin America and Caribbean Capacity Analysis can be downloaded at http://www.alta.aero/descargas/trafico/capacity_analysis_2009.pdf

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