Global aviation capacity is off to a robust start in 2026, with total airline seats reaching 493.7 million this month—a 2.4% increase over January 2025. According to the latest data from OAG, this growth injects an additional 11.4 million seats into the global market compared to the same period last year.
American Airlines has retained its position as the world’s largest airline by frequency. The carrier is scheduled to operate 183,343 frequencies in January 2026, marking an increase of 4,814 flights over last year. This represents the largest frequency growth among the world’s top 20 airlines.
While American Airlines leads in volume, other carriers are seeing rapid percentage-based growth:
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Turkish Airlines: Up 9.9% year-on-year.
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LATAM Airlines Group: Up 6.7% year-on-year.
Conversely, some major players have reduced capacity, with Azul Airlines (-12.2%), Deutsche Lufthansa (-8.6%), and China Eastern (-6.9%) seeing the most significant declines.
The United States remains the world’s largest domestic market with 81.7 million seats, widening its lead over China by 11.3 million seats.
The Chinese domestic market experienced a temporary contraction of 2 million seats (-2.8%) this month. Analysts attribute this shift entirely to the timing of the Lunar New Year; the holiday moved from January 29 last year to February 17 this year, pushing the traditional travel peak into next month.
Other domestic market highlights include:
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Fastest Growth: Mexico (+6.8%) and Turkiye (+6.3%).
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Declines: Japan (-2.7%) and Indonesia (-0.1%).
Western Europe and the Middle East continue to be the primary engines of seat volume growth, adding 2.4 million and 2.0 million seats respectively. However, the fastest growth rates are emerging from Africa:
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Southern Africa: 11.6% capacity increase.
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North Africa: 9.9% capacity increase.
Only two of the 17 IATA regions—the Caribbean (-0.6%) and North East Asia (-1.3%)—reported capacity declines this month, largely influenced by the aforementioned calendar shift in China.
