»»A Weak Recovery for Business Travel
International Air Transport Association (IATA) said despite a slight recovery in world trade helped lift the number of people flying, total passenger numbers have now recovered about half of last year’s drop.
IATA said that premium and economy passenger numbers are now around 6% points above their respective low points, but are still well below early 2008 levels, with the number of people flying internationally rose 0.2% in October from a year ago, but is down 2.1% from 2007.
In the year to date, passenger numbers are off 5.1%. Premium seating is down 18%, while economy seating fell just 3.6%.
- Markets
Europe was the weakest premium market with numbers down 19.7% form a year ago. Other long-haul markets: North Atlantic numbers were down 5.8% and Pacific 12.1%, respectively, South America up 19.8% and Middle East to Far East markets were up 14.8%.
- Fares
In recession times, with most of companies tightening their budgets the number of business travelers flying fell sharply. That pushed airlines to reduce ticket prices to fill their seats with leisure travelers. Average premium fares dropped an estimated 20% for October, and were down 27% decline in September. (source)
