Data from the Flight Centre Travel Group has identified an increase of more than 3% in the number of business travellers booking premium corporate fares for international travel from Australia in 2022, compared with pre-pandemic 2019. This points to one-third of all bookings now flying in a premium-class cabin.
Speaking to Global Travel Media Flight Centre’s Corporate ANZ MD, Melissa Elf, said business travel was bouncing back more quickly than originally anticipated. “As the critical nature of face-to-face meetings comes to the fore, corporates aren’t waiting around to restart their travel programmes at home or abroad. Corporate travellers are wasting no time in filling premium cabins and that’s leading to a shortage of business-class seats on routes in the coming months. Some carriers have no premium vacancies until well into the new financial year, such is the demand right now.
Boris Ogursky, Media Spokesperson for Lufthansa Europe, Middle East and Africa, told Travel News that demand for corporate travel was indeed recovering quickly.
“We have noticed a stronger demand for premium cabin travel. The main industry sector drivers of the recovery are the energy sectors, marine, offshore, financial, IT services and media and entertainment. We have also observed a general trend for leisure travellers to book more premium-class seats. It seems the expectation of service and comfort has increased post pandemic.”
A spokesperson for Emirates confirmed that corporate and business travel on Emirates was picking up significantly again, especially to business centres across Africa, the Middle East region, Europe and the US.
“This is in line with the broader uptick in travel demand as more countries ease travel restrictions, and we restore our network connectivity. We are also experiencing a significant boost in premium-class travel to leisure destinations such as the Indian Ocean islands and Thailand.
“Bookings for our premium cabins are strong, especially on long-haul routes, due to the privacy and personal space that premium cabins offer, along with the comforts and amenities we provide.
“The premium-class seat load factors have rebounded and are higher than 2019 levels, both in first and business class. We’re seeing strong volumes of business travellers bound for Dubai on Emirates across a wide gamut of sectors.”
