Help | Seat Capacity getting started

Information is power and at ForwardKeys® we are committed to providing decision makers with unique tactical information on travel trends.

In case you have purchased multiple datasets from ForwardKeys, you can access them by hovering over the dataset menu on the upper left corner of your screen from the platform:

Define what you want to analyse

Set up filters for your queries using the panel on the left side of the screen. At the bottom of the menu is the latest database update date (A).

Define the Module (B) you need:

Arrivals Module is selected by default for your queries. Hovering your mouse over “Arrivals” enables you to select between Arrivals, Departures, and Routes Modules.

Arrivals Module displays flights arriving in your Point(s) of Interest.
Departures Module displays flights departing from Point(s) of Interest.
Routes Module displays direct flights arriving and departing from your Point(s) of Interest.

Choose the Point(s) of Interest (C):

Point(s) of Interest (POI): Mandatory field for the location which is the focus of the analysis, the arrival or departure location depending on the selected module (Arrivals, Departures, etc.,) and according to your contractual details. You can select multiple points (results will display aggregated data) at airport terminal, airport, city, region, country, or sub-continent level.

Select the period that you are interested in by using Date Selectors

Define the flight period for your analysis. Set up dates for the current period (Y0) [A] of your analysis interest, and the comparable period (Y-1) can be set up in the second row of the flight date selector.

Under Arrivals module, you are defining the date of the scheduled flights arriving in your Point(s) of Interest.
Under Departures module, you are defining the date of the scheduled flights departing from your Point(s) of Interest.
Under Routes module, you are defining the date of the scheduled flights arriving in or departing from your Point(s) of Interest.

Clicking on the date filed will open the calendar [B] for choosing the dates with more flexibility.

Hover your mouse over the “Star” Button [C] and you will be able to view and click to select the following express options which set up Y0 and Y-1 for you:

Floating year
Calendar year
Year to date
Next 6 calendar months
Next 6 floating months

The Clear Button (D) will clear the predefined dates in the date selector. It is recommended to click (D) before opening the calendar to enter or modify the dates.

For a quick search, Star Button (C) has the most usual time period preset (floating year, calendar year, year-to-date, next 3 and 6 months) for each section.
Clear Button (D) will clear the predefined dates in the date selector. It is recommended to click (D) before opening the calendar to enter or modify the dates.

Quick Button (E) will automatically set the dates for the comparison dates as an equivalent period for the previous year.

If you are analysing monthly data, the dates will be the exact same calendar period (E.g. “01 to 31-Dec2012” vs “01 to 31-Dec 2011”), while weekly and daily analysis will define the previous period starting with the same weekday (E.g. “Tue 1 Jan-Thu 31 Jan 2013” vs “Tue 3 Jan-Thu 02 Feb 2012”).

You can also customize the Loading Dates, the dates when an airline schedules the future flights into the database. Loading dates are useful to check the evolution of capacity over a period of time. If Loading Dates are cleared, the queries will be loaded based on the information as of the latest database update.

Define more details for your queries using parameters under Flight Attributes (A)

(The following definitions are used under the Arrivals module):

Leg Origin: Leg Origin is where the flights are coming from. If the flight makes stopovers, the Leg Origin is the last stopover.
Flight Origin: Where the flights are coming from. If the flight makes stopovers, the Flight Origin is the first origin before the stopovers.
Airlines: which airlines operate the flights
Cabin Classes: the cabin class of available seats on the aircraft which is planned to fly the route.

Cabin class denomination changes from time to time for each airline. ForwardKeys does not have historical cabin data before 2016, therefore we applied the latest classification for historical data from 2015 or earlier. Please use this information with caution.

Carrier Type: the type of airlines including Legacy, Low Cost Carrier (LCC), Partially Charter, Unknown.
Arrival / Departure Time Schedule: depending on the selected module (Arrivals or Departures) refers to the time slot in local time.
Nb. of Stops: the number of stops before reaching destination. This filter helps to identify direct flights that have stopover(s) in a certain geographical location, which does happen when airlines try to make the route(s) profitable. Categories include nonstop, 1 stop, 2 stops, 3 stops and 4 or more stops.
Stopovers: filter to define geographical location of the stopover(s) of certain direct flights.
Aircraft: aircraft types that are scheduled for the flights.
Alliances: 3 airline alliances, Star Alliance, SkyTeam, and OneWorld or “No alliance”.
Flight Duration: how long the flight lasts in hours.
Weekly Frequency: total number of flights for a week.

Define visualisation granularity in the Analysis box (B)

(Time) Scale: Depending on your contractual details and your analysis needs, the scale of the results can be Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Quarterly.
(Geographical) Granularity: You can choose the geographical granularity of the origin or destination locations, depending on the selected module (Arrivals or Departures), at an airport terminal, airport, city, region, country or sub-continent level.

Take a detailed look into the query result

Top menu bar overview

Capacity (A): the default display of the query results, one of three analysis views, displaying total seats going from Leg origin(s) to Point of Interest(s) at your selected granularity under Arrivals Module.
Evolution (B): the second analysis view, which you can use to learn how the projected capacity changes along with time. This can be done thanks to the Loading Dates, which are the dates when flights’ information is updated. Since flights are projected many months in advance, Loading Date allows to check what the flights were formerly supposed to be in a past period of time. The Evolution displays how the projected flight evolves when its information is updated in every loading date.
Full List (C): the third analysis view, which displays a comprehensive list of flight details of the query. You can apply filters to see the changes in routes that may affect the capacity results during the selected period, including new and dropped airlines, new and dropped routes, and seasonal changes. You can also filter by operating airlines or geographic details.
Units (D): Allows you to change the results, displaying either total number of flights or total number of seats.
Leg Origin/Destination (E): Capacity query results are categorized according to either Leg Origin or Leg Destination, depending on the selected module (Arrivals or Departures). By using this drop-down menu, you can analyse capacity for all your selected origin(s)/destination(s) all together (default) or focus on a specific origin/destination, and then further dive into Segmentation specifics by using Segmented by (F) drop down menu.
Segmentation (Segmented by) (F): tables and graphs will be displayed according to your selected segmentation. By default, it displays Leg Origin.
Airlines (G): by selecting a specific airline, this tab further filters and displays the results of segmentations only for the specific airline that you have chosen.

Analysing the query result

The Calendar heatmap (A) shows you an overview of the year-on-year performance of the period that you are querying, while allowing you to further filter results for a shorter period within the “Arrivals/Departure Dates” set in the Parameter Menu.

To adjust your colour coding: move the arrows on the Colour Coding Bar (B);
To check the performance for a less detailed granularity: click on Granularity Cell (C) to switch to weekly or monthly view of the calendar.
When the query is under “Daily” granularity, it is also possible to include/exclude specific day(s) of the week in the selected date range by checking/unchecking the boxes (D).
To select a shorter period: click and hold your mouse on either starting or ending date and drag to the one you need.

Analysis: Capacity and Evolution

More details are displayed below the coloured calendar.

Summary table (A) in the Capacity module is exclusive to Capacity analysis. It shows a summary of total volumes during the period selected in the calendar heatmapand the previous one, as well as graphical bar charts for variations and a pie chart of market shares.
Absolute figures graph (B) shows the volumes during the period selected in the calendar heatmap based on the analysis granularity selected for the query. While lines represent the total volumes for the analysed period and the period to which is compared to, the bars display segmentation categories.
Variation graph (C) calculates the year-on-year percentage variations of the volumes in the analysed period and the period to which is compared with. By default, it only shows variations for “Total”; it is possible to select segmentation categories in the legend to be shown / hidden in the graph.

Analysis: Full List

The summary chart (A) summarises the situation for the entire period in the analysed query: the total number of routes during the current and previous periods being analysed, the number of new routes opened or dropped by existing airlines, the number of routes opened by newly joined airlines or dropped by airlines quitting all operations in between your selected origin and destination for the current period, the number of routes that have operation season changes.

The routes chart (C) shows the details of the operated flights during the period selected in the tab (Y0 refers to the analysed period, Y1 refers to the period to which is compared with). The columns show the main details for each flight: modifications in routes or operating airlines, route origin airport and country, route destination airport and country, operation start and end dates, total number of flights corresponding to each day of the week, average number of seats per flight, and total flights operated during the analysed period.

Routes displayed on the routes chart (C) can be filtered using the filter menu (B).

The Full List analysis displays three types of route modifications comparing the current period (Y0) of the query with the previous one (Y-1). These can be altered in the filter menu (B).

New or dropped airlines: Displays the created or dropped routes with further qualification of the operating airlines status. The new airlines are those who did not operate any routes during the previous period of the query between your selected origin and destination; the dropped airlines are those which operated during the previous period but no longer operated any routes during the current period of the query.
New or dropped routes: Displays the routes that are created or dropped comparing the current period of the query with the previous one; the airlines operating the listed routes may operate other routes between your selected origin and destination.
Changed season: Displays the seasonal routes whose operation period has changed; for example, a route that used to be operated in the winter is given some additional flights for the summer season.