Demand for Air Charter Reportedly Weakening

Demand for charter flights is about to take a tumble, according to data from online charter portal Avinode. Its demand index for the next 30 days, which stood at nearly 117 on January 1, was down to 65 on February 1. But the February 1 number was slightly higher than the 59.7 figure recorded on the same date in 2009. To calculate the index, Avinode takes the average financial value of the 60,000 or so flight requests its system processes each month and works out an average daily value for trips requested for the next 30 days.