No Sign of Extra Airline Capacity for Football Fans at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, says OAG
Luton, UK, 03 March 2014
The Brazilian Civil Aviation Authority has authorised its carriers to operate nearly 2,000 additional flights during the World Cup this summer, but, according to OAG, the world’s leading aviation intelligence expert, Brazil’s carriers have not yet increased capacity in June and July to accommodate the influx of football fans and additional traffic that the World Cup will bring.
John Grant, executive vice-president, OAG, says: “Our analytics show that Brazil’s domestic seat capacity is currently down 0.5% and 3% in June and July 2014 respectively, compared to the same months last year. While this is consistent with Brazil’s trend to cut capacity, 0.6m overseas visitors are reported to be travelling to the games, including 22,000 England fans.
“With the group stages of the World Cup spread between 12 cities across the country, fans will need to travel huge distances to attend the group stage matches and air travel, in most cases, is the only realistic option – Rio to Manaus, where England will play their first match, is a drive of 1,768 miles. There are currently just less than 27,000 scheduled aircraft seats in March 2014 between the two cities, making it hard to believe that additional air capacity will not be needed in June.”
Read the full press release here