Premium & Economy Passenger Traffic - August 2011

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently published the premium and economy class traffic results for August 2011. Key points from the report:

• There was a sharp fall during August in the number of passengers travelling on premium seats, following unexpectedly robust growth in the second quarter;
• The level of premium travel was just 2.3% up on the previous year in August, compared with 7.5% in July;
• Economy travel was not as severely affected, declining from growth of 5.5% to 3.7%, which probably reflects some switching of seat class by business passengers;
• Premium travel has now fallen back to the levels of the fourth quarter of last year;
• These lower levels are consistent with the decline in international trade and business confidence seen in recent months, which is now generating a fall in business travel;
• The major source of weakness appears to be Europe, where economic conditions and business confidence have deteriorated sharply;
• Within-Europe and the North Atlantic markets saw the sharpest falls in premium traffic during August;
• By contrast some premium markets, such as within Far East market, remained strong as structural gains in regional trade boosted business travel;
• However, the fall in business confidence has been widespread, including India and China, pointing to a further slowdown in air travel in the months ahead.

[Source: IATA]