More than 6.3 million people a day took scheduled flights in 2006, as airlines offered a record 3.3 billion seats over the course of the year.
Concern about the impact on climate change and ecology will be heightened by the revelation that the world’s seventh-busiest new route was between Guayaquil in Ecuador and the environmentally priceless Galapagos Islands, with carriers offering 294,000 seats on services.
The figures released by travel information company OAG confirm a 3.4% increase in seats worldwide year on year. The number of flights rose by almost 500,000 to 28.2 million. Low-cost carriers operated 3.8 million of these.
The busiest new route out of Europe last year, in terms of seat numbers, was between Antalya in Turkey and Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, reflecting the growth of Turkey’s outbound tourism.
Europe’s busiest start-up domestic route was Newcastle-London City, with 1,620 flights.