High-spending holidaymakers fill airlines’ first-class and business seats

High-spending holidaymakers are spearheading a boom in first-class and business-class flight bookings, leading big airlines to bet on a new era of luxury travel with investments in their cabins and lounges. Lufthansa this month said the “very strongest demand” for travel this year had been in its premium cabins, and that leisure travellers had “almost completely compensated” for the slower return of corporate bookings. The airline’s CE Carsten Spohr said he expected a “permanent shift” towards holidaymakers filling business and first class seats, as he drew comparisons with the recent boom enjoyed by luxury sectors including cars, watches and prime real estate. “This year is the first year all my team tells me we need to grow first class . . . I never thought I would ever hear that,” Spohr said on an earnings call. Ben Smith, CE of Air France-KLM, said his airline group was investing to keep up with demand from high-end leisure travellers, particularly for flights to Paris, and was “more than making up” for the reduction in corporate travel. Airlines are hoping to tap into relentless demand for luxury goods and experiences, which has rebounded rapidly following Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020. “[It is] not just us: ask the same question of luxury hotels and business . . . the whole sector is doing extremely well,” Smith told analysts on the airline’s results call. A strong dollar was helping to drive demand from US transatlantic travellers, which was making up for the slow return of typically high-spending Chinese tourists, airlines added. Travel in first and business-class cabins has recovered faster than total passenger traffic, according to global airlines body Iata. Premium passenger numbers reached 86% of 2019 levels in February, the most recent month for which data is available, compared with an industry-wide total of 81%.<br/>