Litebulbs wrote:
A robust rise in world trade seems to be driving the upturn in premium passengers, which is largely business travel. It now looks as though the recession in premium travel has been cyclical rather than a permanent fall. Economy travel is also likely to be benefiting from the return of business travel.
Premium traffic is recovering on the back of lower yields. Currently, these remain poor and need to recover by 30% to get back to 2008 levels.
The premium markets showing the strongest growth include within South America, within Far East and Europe-Far East. However, BA is poorly placed to take advantage as its costs remain higher than the competition. And on the North Atlantic where BA has made its money for a long time, not only is the growth tiny but the likes of CO, DL and US are running LHR flights in direct competition with BA.