Addendum
Lucrative days for business class numbered says Emirates boss
July 1st 2016
Corporate long haul travelers would migrate to cheaper seats and “high end stuff is not going to come through as it did in the good old days”, Emirates Airline president, Sir Tim Clark, told the Financial Times at the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) annual general meeting last month. Read More »
 |
“I see a change in the way corporate travel is going to develop, which will, of course, affect our yields,” he said. He repeated that the Dubai-headquartered airline was considering the introduction of a premium economy cabin into its fleet. “We are mapping out where we think the market will go. We have to recognize that things are going to be slightly different for the mix,” he said.
Airline yields have continued to decline this year, with some carriers in the Asia-Pacific reporting a drop of 13% for the last six months. Air fares are expected to fall by a global average of seven per cent in 2016, but passenger volume will increase, IATA has predicted. “We are going to be there [for a long time] on these fare levels,” Clark said.
In a recent Oxford Economics study, Chinese travelers, already the world’s biggest spenders when they travel, are forecast to double their spending in the next decade. Outbound Mainland travelers whose household income exceeds US$20,000 per year, spent $137 billion in 2015. This figure will increase by 86%, to US$255.4 billion in 2025, said the study.
