OAG Aviation Worldwide Limited just dropped the latest rankings for the busiest airlines in Southeast Asia for September 2024, and guess what? Indonesia’s very own Lion Air is still holding strong at the number one spot!
The rankings are based on the number of one-way departure seats and any additional seating capacity from month to month. Lion Air currently dominates with a whopping 9% of all flight capacity, boasting an impressive 3.16 million seats as of September 2024. This isn’t the first time they’ve topped the charts either—Lion Air held onto this title back in April 2024 too.
Coming in second is AirAsia, capturing 7% of the regional market share. However, not all airlines had a seat-filling month. Vietnam Airlines saw the biggest drop in capacity, cutting down by 461,300 seats—about a 20% reduction.
But Vietnam Airlines wasn’t the only one feeling the squeeze. Cebu Pacific and Thai AirAsia also saw significant cuts, trimming their capacities by 15% and 14%, respectively.
On a slightly more optimistic note, despite reducing its passenger capacity by 11%, Vietjet Air is still in a positive spot, with double the capacity it had back in September 2019.
When we zoom out and look at the region as a whole, Indonesia remains the giant of Southeast Asia’s aviation market, with 11.6 million seats, making up a hefty 31% of the total market.
Meanwhile, though there’s been an improvement compared to September 2023, the number of available seats in Thailand and Malaysia is still lower than in September 2019. Not to mention, the overall passenger capacity across the region saw a slight dip—down 6% from August 2024.
Here’s the full breakdown
- Lion Air (JT) – 3,159,818 seats
- AirAsia (AK) – 2,558,652 seats
- Vietnam Airlines (VN) – 1,901,415 seats
- Vietjet (VJ) – 1,892,815 seats
- Cebu Pacific Air (5J) – 1,817,555 seats
- Singapore Airlines (SQ) – 1,642,282 seats
- Batik Air (ID) – 1,623,600 seats
- PT. Super Air Jet (IU) – 1,548,360 seats
- Thai AirAsia (FD) – 1,467,854 seats
- Philippine Airlines (PR) – 1,330,224 seats
- Southeast Asia’s skies are certainly busy, but Lion Air is flying high above the rest!