The dreaded inverted pyramid

For the past decade, Airline Economics has been looking at the aging populations of Japan, the UK and many EU nations and adjusting fleet forecasts accordingly. Until now, aging populations have continued their annual air travel unabated, save for COVID restrictions. But the trend of aging populations reducing air travel requirements is gathering pace, especially within Japan. This could and should lead to one of two things – either airlines need to reduce capacity (COVID has helped in this regard), or airlines need to downsize aircraft types. Since the retirement of the 747-400 fleet, there has been a global move