Fall in premium air travel slows

Bangalore/Mumbai: Airlines seem to have managed to check the decline in premium air travel from March onwards by pruning ticket prices and offering attractive schemes.
Statistics put out by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Tuesday reveal that the drop in the passengers travelling on premium tickets has slowed to 19.2% in March from 21.1% in February.
Rajji Rai, vice-president of Travel Agents' Association of India, confirmed this trend saying pace of drop in the premium travel has come down from March onwards because of price correction.
"After the 5-10% cut in fares of first and business class seats early this year, we has seen that degrowth in that segment is reversing. Most carriers have improved their seat load factors in the luxury air travel segment in the last 2-3 months," said Rai.
Ajay Prakash, national general secretary, Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), said premium travel seems to have stabilised.
"We have not seen a huge dip in the last 2-3 months. The segment tends to be a little more insulated now that the prudent Indians are starting to spend more," he said.
Jitender Bhargava, executive director -- communications -- of Air India, says his airline has also seen the "slowdown impact on the premium flying tapering off."
"We have moderated our fares of first and business class seats in the last three months. This has helped us improve our overall load factor. So, if we had X fare in December, it was X minus (-) a certain amount in March and April. This has seen more people travelling on premium fares. Because of this, the slowdown there (in the premium segment) has been lesser in the last two months," he said.
The senior executive of the state-owned airline also believes the tumble in the number of passengers travelling on first and business class has also slowed because of better outlook on the global economy.
20/05/09 Praveena Sharma & Archana Shukla/Daily News & Analysis

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Indian Aviation- In General May 2009