CAA: recession cut demand for business flights by a third
27.12.10
Demand for business air travel fell by almost a quarter during the recession, and is unlikely to return to pre-recession levels on short-haul routes, the Telegraph reports a new report by the Civil Aviation Authority has found. Analysis by the CAA shows that international business travel to and from the UK fell by 4.6% in 2008 and 22.2% in 2009, with a further decline in the first half of 2010.
Hardest hit in 2009 were routes between the UK and EU, where passengers fell by 25%, and between the UK and North America, down 20%. Both regions were particularly hurt by the crisis in the financial services industry, which saw a sharp fall in the numbers of bankers flying.
While the data shows a recent pick-up in business travel with global economic recovery, the first half of 2010 remained 28% below 2008's level – although a contributory factor was the closure of European airspace for six days due to Icelandic volcano disruption.
A key trend is that ‘the recession hastened the migration of short-haul business travellers from business class to travelling in economy and using no-frills carriers’. The industry regulator sees ‘a general acceptance that economic recovery will not reverse this trend'. The CAA found that on routes from London ‘the decline in business passengers using short-haul premium cabins is particularly marked, having fell from 41% in 1996 to just 5% in 2009’.
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