Economic uncertainty dampens growth in premium-class air travel
Airlines have reported weaker demand for premium-class travel in the second half of 2015, blaming global economic uncertainty.
According to the latest figures from airline body IATA, it was a ‘soft end’ to the year for industry-wide premium-class travel volumes.
It blamed challenging conditions in some of the key industry sectors for premium travel, notably the banking sector, as well as the mining and energy sectors.
And it predicted growth is likely to remain only modest in the near term too.
Premium traffic volumes grew by an estimated 3.7% in 2015 as a whole.
But much of the growth was seen early in 2015 and slowed over the latter months of the year.
Seasonally adjusted premium volumes increased by just 0.2% between July and November 2015, and traffic in December was just 1.7% higher than in the same month in 2014.
The strongest growth was seen on the North Atlantic, the largest market in terms of revenue, which is estimated to have grown by a healthy 4.5% in 2015.
IATA said this was supported by solid economic growth in the US and a modest cyclical upturn in Europe.
Meanwhile, slowing growth and even recession in a number of large emerging markets, such as China and Brazil, has hit premium traffic growth.
But although premium passenger numbers lagged behind economy volumes growth on most routes at the end of last year, premium fares in general held up better.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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