The world’s airlines have scheduled 2.77 million flights for this month with a total capacity of 351.6 million seats, representing an increases of three per cent and five per cent respectively on last year’s August figures.

This is the third successive month global aviation growth has gone up by these percentages, according to the latest statistics from OAG, a UBM Aviation brand. The OAG Frequency And Capacity Trend Statistics report for August reveals 90,213 more flights will operate year on year, offering 16.1 million more seats.

“Stability on this scale is very welcome, particularly against an uncertain economic backdrop in many major markets,” said Peter von Moltke, chief executive officer, UBM Aviation. “Aviation planners, encouraged by this steady upward trend, will be keen to explore route development opportunities to maximise their share of passenger de-mand.”

While this month’s figures point to higher consumer confidence in a global context, there are some significant variations in regional performance.

The highest level of intra-regional growth this month is within Africa, with an 11 per cent rise in flights and nine per cent more seat capacity, followed by Asia with 10 per cent more flights and seven per cent more capacity.