Global airline capacity for October 2009 is showing positive growth of 1.04% compared to October 2008, down slightly from September’s growth of 1.4%, reports OAG, the world’s leading aviation data business, as it releases its monthly report on trends in the supply of airline flights and seats. The world’s airlines have 299.9 million seats available this month, a rise of 1.04% (3,091,580 more seats) over October 2008 levels.

David Beckerman, vice president OAG Market Intelligence, said, “We’re seeing continued growth in global capacity even with slight decreases in frequency across Europe and North America as we go into fall, which would tend to indicate a trend towards re-evaluating less popular routes.”

Frequencies are marginally down compared to October 2008. The world’s airlines have scheduled a total of 2.4 million flights for October 2009, down by 1% (24,445 fewer flights) compared with the same month last year.

Last month, the year on year global frequency figure was down by 0.6% and capacity was up by 1.4%.

The low cost sector is slowing in growth as a whole however; growth is strong in the Middle East with 12% more flights, Latin America with 54% International and 48% domestic capacity growth, and Africa with 9% increase in flights.

The figures are revealed in the October 2009 edition of OAG FACTS (Frequency & Capacity Trend Statistics), the dynamic monthly market intelligence tool providing the latest data on current passenger airline activity around the world.