»»Airline Premium Traffic Remains Weak in November
The airline premium traffic — passengers traveling on first or business class — remains weak, according to the data released by IATA.
traffic in November was 6.7 percent lower when compared with the same month in 2008.
Despite it represents a slight improvement on the 9.3 percent decline recorded in October, premium travel numbers are still over 20 percent lower than early 2008 levels.
- Premium traffic by region
With premium tickets mainly bought by passengers traveling on business such demand is strictly correlated to the economic recovery. That means premium tickets demand varies by route, reflecting the different pace of economic recovery.
Premium traffic in November was up 18.2 percent year-on-year within Latin America and up 13.7 percent between the Middle East and Far East, but down 18.5 percent within Europe and down 5.9 percent on the Transatlantic market.
As premium traffic represents less than 10 percent of total travel, it accounts for about 30 percent of passenger revenues for most airlines. (source)
