Business class travel helps post-pandemic airline sales take off | Airline industry
It was proclaimed moribund, if not doomed, just a year ago. But now, is business class air travel taking off again? British Airways’ owner IAG, forecasting a return to profit this year, said that a strong recovery in business bookings was driving the recovery.
In a world where half the City can no longer be bothered to get on the Northern line to return to the office, and bankers begrudge the cost of a train from Surrey, how can airlines claim to be pulling this off?
There are a couple of things to note. Firstly, not all the premium seats are necessarily occupied by passengers travelling solely for work. Plenty of holiday companies, from the travel giant TUI to BA itself, have reported that more affluent customers, who kept earning and in some cases amassed hefty savings while forced to stay at home during the pandemic, are now blowing a lot more on a holiday – even as the cost of living crisis hits many.
But work trips are also…
