• Home
• News Article

Global premium air traffic declines 8% in September

Global premium air travel recorded a sharp eight per cent decline in over the 12 months to September, as business travel declined at a fast pace amid global financial downturn, according to the latest statistics by the International Air Transport Association, or Iata .

The decline, which follows a 1.5 per cent fall for business and first-class travel in August, coincided with a steep decline in the confidence of manufacturing businesses in Europe, Japan and the US, Iata said in its report.

"The fall in business travel was also damaged further by the impact of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and the wider turmoil in the financial sector," it added.

The slump in premium travel has also had an impact on the Middle East market, as per Iata 's report, where traffic was soaring until August at a rate of about 20 per cent a year riding on the back of economic activity generated by strong oil revenues.

This region registered a 13.8 per cent fall in premium traffic. "The premium traffic on North Atlantic markets fell two per cent in September, reflecting the sharp economic downturn on both ends of this market. Perhaps more of a surprise was a 13.8 per cent fall in premium traffic flying within the Middle East," Iata said.

"There were some sharp downturns in many markets in September. Up until August most of the weakness, aside from the structurally weak within-Europe premium market, had been seen in Asia and in markets connected to Asia.

By contrast, Middle East and North Atlantic markets had held up relatively well. That has changed," it added.

Sixth-freedom traffic over the Middle East also seems to have declined with a seven per cent fall in Europe-Middle East travel and an 18.2 per cent fall in Middle East-Far East passenger numbers, as per Iata statistics.

Meanwhile, total passenger numbers fell 4.4 per cent in September, faster than the 2.9 per cent decline in traffic, or revenue passenger kilometres, as short-haul flights had the biggest drop-off.

And as business confidence continues to fall, IATA warns of a further "substantial" decline in travel.

IATA pushes Europe on SES
The International Air Transport Association said yesterday it has asked Europe to deliver a Single European Sky (SES) by 2012.

"After decades of talks and little action, failure to implement an effective SES is Europe's biggest environmental embarrassment. In 2007, this failure resulted in 21 million minutes of delays and 468 million kilometres of unnecessary flight. This wasted 16 million tonnes of CO2," said IATA's Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani in a keynote address to the European Air Transport Summit in Bordeaux.

"This crisis that is gripping the airline industry highlights the fact that airlines cannot afford the five billion euros cost that this brings. And neither can Europe afford the impact," he added.

By Shweta Jain

© Emirates Business 24/7 2008