BA to focus on business travel
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British Airways is planning to sharpen its focus on business travellers as the recession saps travel demand, Bloomberg reported the carrier’s US chief as saying. The airline’s all-business-class flights between London’s City Airport and New York (JFK) start in September, and a promotion began yesterday offering US executives free travel to Europe to promote their companies, said Simon Talling-Smith, British Airways’ Executive Vice President for the Americas.
“We will continue to position ourselves as a premium airline, that is absolutely core to our business model,” Talling-Smith was quoted saying. “There is an ongoing demand for business travel, and that isn’t going to go away.”
The move may come as a surprise, as BA has experienced 10 straight months of declines in premium traffic; one of the primary factors leading to the carrier recording a GBP401 million (US$650 million) pre-tax loss for the last financial year.
Talling-Smith added that while British Airways hasn’t yet sold out its initial flights between London City and New York, the carrier is “pretty confident” demand will rise as the 29 September launch date nears.
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