Europe’s Fading Allure Forces Gulf Carriers to Rein In Expansion
- Mideast ‘big three’ slow capacity gains to lowest in a decade
- Chinese tour groups put off by spate of bombings and attacks
An Etihad Airways Airbus A380 in Hamburg, Germany.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Gulf airlines will slow capacity growth on European routes to the lowest level in more than a decade as sputtering economies, an ailing oil industry and concerns about terrorism depress demand in one of the travel sector’s most hotly contested markets.
After seating capacity on European routes rose nearly six-fold over the past 12 years, growth from Dubai-based Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways PJSC of Abu Dhabi will drop to 4.1 percent in the first quarter of 2017, according to figures compiled by travel-data provider Diio LLC. That’s the slowest expansion in the region since at least 2004, the year after Etihad was founded, according to Barclays airline analyst Oliver Sleath.