“Business Travelers May Never Escape Coach-Class Shift - BusinessWeek” plus 1 more

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Business Travelers May Never Escape Coach-Class Shift - BusinessWeek Posted: 16 Feb 2010 11:33 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. February 16, 2010, 02:19 PM EST (Adds comments from business-travel organizer in eighth paragraph, NBTA in 13th; adds Virgin Atlantic fares in 16th.) By Steve Rothwell Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Corporate travelers forced to fly coach during the recession may never return to business-class cabins as employers seek permanent cuts to their travel budgets, the International Air Transport Association said today. While premium bookings advanced 1.7 percent in December from a year earlier, the first gain in 18 months, economy-class traffic rose 5 percent even as consumer confidence leveled off, suggesting business travelers are staying in coach, IATA said. With carriers such as British Airways Plc relying on corporate flyers to make services profitable, a permanent shift to coach would pile more pressure on an industry that's facing losses of $5.6 billion this year. Revenue per passenger is still 5 to 10 percent below 2008 levels, showing that airlines are struggling to raise fares even as demand picks up. "Premium fares are absolutely critical for airlines and this will heighten fears that the market may never return to the same level," said John Strickland, an aviation specialist at JLS Consulting Ltd. in London. "It looked like we might see a structural shift when business travel fell off after 9/11, and it seems even more likely this time." First- and business-class bookings increased in December for the first time since May 2008, IATA said in a statement today, recovering from declines that reached 25 percent in May last year. All-told, the credit crunch and global recession have wiped out six years of growth, the association estimates. 'Structural Shift' "The question is, to what extent is that lost growth a structural shift or a cyclical fluctuation?" IATA said. TravelWise Group Ltd., which books business trips for small and mid-sized U.K. companies, said business travelers consigned to coach in the slump shouldn't expect an early return to the front of the plane. "Once people go to the back they tend to stay there," sales manager Stephen Baxendale said in a phone interview from the company's offices near Leeds, England. December's gain was led by a 15 percent surge in premium bookings within Asia and by long-haul trips involving emerging economies, IATA said. Traffic was down 1.1 percent across the North Atlantic, the biggest corporate travel market. Bucking the Trend Coach-class sales have traditionally been driven by leisure bookings, with the market fluctuating in tandem with measures of consumer confidence, IATA said. In the current slump, though, economy bookings continued to grow at a 6 percent annual rate for the six months after confidence began to decline. In the recent upturn, travel in coach continued to grow even after confidence levels leveled off and has shown a closer correlation to world trade figures, a measure that's more often associated with fluctuations in corporate travel, it said. "We think it reasonable to assume that changes in the number of economy -- as well as premium -- seat sales are being driven to a larger extent by business travel rather than leisure," the association said. Spending on corporate travel tends to lag behind economic growth as once budget cuts have been implemented they tend to remain in place for several years, said Caleb Tiller, a senior director at the U.S. National Business Travel Association. "Once companies have changed their thinking about the use of premium travel it doesn't ramp right back up with the economy," Tiller said in a telephone interview from Alexandria, Virginia. The stronger the economic rebound, the greater the likely upturn in business-class bookings, he said. Too Much Choice? Airlines may also have damaged prospects for a quick return to business-class flying through the introduction of upgraded economy cabins offering bigger seats, better food and a greater choice of entertainment than in coach for about half the price. Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. introduced the world's first enhanced economy service in 1992, the year Britain exited the last recession before the 2009 slump. A seat from London to New York in "premium economy," as the cabin was renamed, costs from 871 pounds ($1,375) for travel in August, compared with 384 pounds in coach and 1,856 pounds in business or "upper class," according to the U.K. carrier's Web site. British Airways Chairman Martin Broughton said last summer that business customers were no longer placing the same value on the flexibility offered by higher fares as companies cut budgets and rein in debt. The change poses a "fundamental challenge" to BA's traditional business model, he told investors July 14. --Editors: Chris Jasper, David Risser. To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Rothwell in London at +44-20-7673-2365 or srothwell@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at +49-30-70010-6215 or kwong11@bloomberg.net. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

What are the world's '12 ugliest airports?' - USA Today Posted: 17 Feb 2010 05:38 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. From USA TODAY's Airport Check-in column: " 'Travel + Leisure' named the world's 12 ugliest airports in its latest issue. Some are familiar names that might get a nod of agreement from frequent travelers: New York JFK, Atlanta Hartsfield, Paris de Gaulle, El Paso International and London Heathrow. Others are unexpected, such as Washington Dulles ('Looks great from a distance,' the magazine says). Also making the list: Moscow's Sheremetyevo International, Tokyo Narita, Milan Linate, Bulgaria's Sofia International, Lynden Pindling International in Nassau, Bahamas, and Ngurah Rai International in Denpasar, Bali." Among T+L's critiques: * "You are unlikely to mistake El Paso International for any other airport on the planet. Arguably that's a good thing." * "(T)ravelers have come to view (Paris Charles De Gaulle) the way Monsieur Hulot might: as a symbol of a fiendishly technocratic world where nothing works and nobody cares. * "(The Nassau airport in the Bahamas) looks like someone once made a halfhearted effort to get it right. Maybe the nasty blue carpet was nicer when it was new." TODAY'S TALKER: Do you agree with the T+L list? Or do you think they got it wrong? If so, what airports would you add -- or take off -- the list? Share your thoughts.  Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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