AEA member airlines to fly 1 million passengers a day over Christmas and New Year period

During the upcoming Festive season, AEA member airlines will fly more than 1 million passengers per day. This is 3 pct. more than last year. The seat occupancy factor is set to increase and will reach an average of over 80 %.

Christmas and New Year is the period of the year to re-unite with family or to enjoy well-deserved winter holidays. More than ever before, it looks like people are ’flying’ home for Christmas. The traffic forecast of the 30 AEA member airlines is a clear testimony to this. According to the latest information, in the holiday fortnight around Christmas and New Year, AEA member airlines will welcome more than 1 million passengers a day on board of their flights to domestic, intra-European or intercontinental destinations.  This is an increase of 3 pct. over the same period last year. The vast majority of flights (nearly 84 %) have a domestic or European flight destination.

A total of 129,307 flights are scheduled from Saturday 20th of December to Sunday 4th January 2015. The top day will be the  22nd of December when the 30 AEA member airlines will operate 9,486 flights.  As in the past, the airlines will slightly reduce capacity and frequencies on the 25th of December and the 1st of January when respectively 5,460 and 6,855 flights will take off.

‘Our airlines fully contribute to the European mobility and social cohesion”, says AEA CEO Athar Husain Khan. “The impressive traffic forecast for the upcoming Christmas holiday period illustrates that perfectly. “