Drop by 23.6 percent seen in Premium air travel in May

Drop by 23.6 percent seen in Premium air travel in May

May saw a faster drop in global airline passenger travel as compared to the previous months, said a trade group Thursday. The group noted that things don't seem to be getting better in the air crisis scenario.

During the month of May, a fall by 23.6 percent was seen in the number of passengers flying on premium tickets, as compared to the May 2008 figures. The International Air Transport Association says that this follows a 22 percent decline in April.

On the other end, following a growth of 0.3 percent in April, a fall by 7.6 percent was noticed in the number of passengers flying coach.  

It should be noted that though travel in first- and business class is only 7 percent to 10 percent of overall airline travel, it accounts for up to 30 percent of passenger revenue.

IATA said: "Airlines tend to make the most money on those passengers, or at least not lose as much as they do on cheaper tickets. And in May, revenue from those premium seats fell 40 percent to 45 percent."  

A fall of 9.2% was recorded in international travel in May, which came as the biggest year-over-year drop till now in 2009.

IATA said in its report: "Airlines are luring remaining travelers with steep discounts, even in the front of the plane. Discounts in coach have been common, but even premium fares were running around 20 percent lower than last year through April."

It added that this is most probably a sign that airlines are looking at generating whatever cash they can by filling these seats.  

Furthermore, the month of May was the month during which Premium traffic in the North Atlantic also went down by 16.5%. While, travel within Europe was down 30.6 percent, travel across the North and Mid-Pacific was down 30.7 percent.

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