Premium traffic drops in US, Europe
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The number of international airline passengers travelling first class and business class in March declined the most since 2003, the International Air Transport Association said but Asia, Middle East and Africa showed growth.
Impacting Europe and the US mostly, the IATA report said the decline reflected a sharp slowdown in financial sector activity and a weakening US economy.
“Airline executives get concerned when they start to see falling traffic in the front of the plane because it’s the premium passengers that represent valuable revenue,” IATA spokesman Steve Lott was quoted saying by Reuters.
“Whether they are flying less or flying in coach, those are both worrying signs for airline managers.”
The IATA report, which Reuters quoted, said premium traffic fell 3.9% year-on-year in March and within North America, the drop was 8.5%. Within Europe, first class and business class traffic for IATA airlines was down by 17% and down 10.7% for the year through March.
But air travel markets in the Middle East, Far East and Africa showed much stronger premium traffic, the report said.
Year-to-date first class and business class traffic was up 18.5% between Africa and the Middle East, up 7.9% between Europe and the Middle East, and up 16.8% between the Middle East and the Far East.
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