Come fly first class with me
One of the bold predictions made in the dark days of the first Covid-19 lockdown was that air travel would never be the same again. Once executives discovered it was perfectly possible to hold meetings with counterparts across the globe via Zoom, business travel — from which many airlines derived the bulk of their income — would surely never fully recover; companies would balk at paying for pricey air tickets and hotels. As travel collapsed, many airlines were kept alive by bailouts. Hundreds of aircraft were parked in the Arizona desert. Things have turned out rather differently. Monthly air passenger numbers are virtually back to pre-pandemic levels. But demand is recovering fastest in the premium segment — driven not by business travellers but by leisure. Lufthansa chief Carsten Spohr said this week that his team’s urgings to expand first class — long in decline — were something he “never thought I would hear”. Air France-KLM says high-end leisure travellers are more than offsetting reduced corporate travel. The three biggest US carriers told investors last month passengers were eager to book seats at the front of the plane. The recovery is not only in first and business class. Low-cost Ryanair this week struck a deal to buy up to 300 Boeing aircraft. With demand close to outstripping supply amid a backlog of new planes, and labour and fuel costs soaring, air fares are rising at twice the rate of inflation. The struggle by airlines and airports to accommodate the surge led over the past year to delays, cancellations, and falling customer satisfaction levels. But that, in turn, may be pushing middle-class customers to upgrade their seats in search of a better experience — even, in some cases, at the cost of shortening their trips. <br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-05-15/general/come-fly-first-class-with-me
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Come fly first class with me
One of the bold predictions made in the dark days of the first Covid-19 lockdown was that air travel would never be the same again. Once executives discovered it was perfectly possible to hold meetings with counterparts across the globe via Zoom, business travel — from which many airlines derived the bulk of their income — would surely never fully recover; companies would balk at paying for pricey air tickets and hotels. As travel collapsed, many airlines were kept alive by bailouts. Hundreds of aircraft were parked in the Arizona desert. Things have turned out rather differently. Monthly air passenger numbers are virtually back to pre-pandemic levels. But demand is recovering fastest in the premium segment — driven not by business travellers but by leisure. Lufthansa chief Carsten Spohr said this week that his team’s urgings to expand first class — long in decline — were something he “never thought I would hear”. Air France-KLM says high-end leisure travellers are more than offsetting reduced corporate travel. The three biggest US carriers told investors last month passengers were eager to book seats at the front of the plane. The recovery is not only in first and business class. Low-cost Ryanair this week struck a deal to buy up to 300 Boeing aircraft. With demand close to outstripping supply amid a backlog of new planes, and labour and fuel costs soaring, air fares are rising at twice the rate of inflation. The struggle by airlines and airports to accommodate the surge led over the past year to delays, cancellations, and falling customer satisfaction levels. But that, in turn, may be pushing middle-class customers to upgrade their seats in search of a better experience — even, in some cases, at the cost of shortening their trips. <br/>
