Thailand loses Southeast Asia's second largest aviation market spot for second straight month
By VNA, VnExpress August 16, 2026 | 03:00 pm PT
Vietnam surpassed Thailand to become the second largest Southeast Asian aviation market for the second consecutive month with 7.3 million scheduled seats in August, according to a report by British aviation analytics firm OAG.
Indonesia maintained its position as Southeast Asia's largest aviation market in August, with around 11 million available seats, up 4.3% year-on-year.
OAG reported that Southeast Asia's total airline capacity reached around 51 million seats in the month, up 0.8% from the same period last year.
Thailand came in third with 7.2 million, followed by Malaysia with 5.4 million and the Philippines with 4.8 million.
This photograph taken on July 25, 2016 shows a passenger at the departure terminal of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport. Photo by AFP
Indonesia also remained the region’s largest domestic aviation market, with 8.8 million seats available, up 5.4% year-on-year, underscoring strong domestic travel demand.
While Indonesia’s scheduled capacity rose 4.3%, Vietnam recorded faster growth of 10%. Capacity in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines declined 1.7%, 6.5% and 5.7%, respectively.
At the airline level, Indonesia’s Lion Air is scheduled to supply around 2.33 million seats, ranking third in Southeast Asia after Vietnam Airlines and Malaysia's AirAsia, although its capacity fell 11.1% year-on-year. Indonesia's Batik Air was among the carriers driving growth in the region’s full-service airline segment.
International routes from Southeast Asia to Europe and North America continued to grow strongly, with capacity rising 10.8% and 9%, respectively, while capacity to the Middle East fell 4.6%.
