Feb 28th 2010, 23:45
by N.B. WASHINGTON, DC
AS GULLIVER likes to remind you, recessions tend to leave permanent marks on premium air travel. Business and first-class ticket sales eventually recover from their recessionary lows, but they do not return to pre-recession levels. So if your company is making you fly coach while it battles out the recession, I have some bad news: you should probably get used to it.
The airlines' main trade group, the International Air Transport Association, agrees. In comments earlier this month, IATA argued that it's "reasonable" to "assume that changes in the number of economy—as well as premium—seat sales are being driven to a larger extent by business travel rather than leisure." Business Week has more (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-16/business-travelers-may-never-escape-coach-class-shift-update1-.html):
Spending on corporate travel tends to lag behind economic growth as once budget cuts have been implemented they tend to remain in place for several years, said Caleb Tiller, a senior director at the U.S. National Business Travel Association.
“Once companies have changed their thinking about the use of premium travel it doesn’t ramp right back up with the economy,” Tiller said in a telephone interview from Alexandria, Virginia. The stronger the economic rebound, the greater the likely upturn in business-class bookings, he said.
That makes sense. But perhaps the most interesting part of Business Week's analysis was the suggestion that the airlines themselves may be hampering the recovery of business class travel:
Airlines may also have damaged prospects for a quick return to business-class flying through the introduction of upgraded economy cabins offering bigger seats, better food and a greater choice of entertainment than in coach for about half the price.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. introduced the world’s first enhanced economy service in 1992, the year Britain exited the last recession before the 2009 slump. A seat from London to New York in “premium economy,” as the cabin was renamed, costs from 871 pounds ($1,375) for travel in August, compared with 384 pounds in coach and 1,856 pounds in business or “upper class,” according to the U.K. carrier’s Web site.
What do you folks think? Did you fly business class before the recession hit? Are your travel departments asking you to stay in coach? And what do you think of the whole "premium economy" situation?
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