Premium Flights

British Airlines, one of the first companies in the world to offer premium seats, has reported a significant loss in the number of passengers in this type of reservation. BA has announced a loss of nearly 11% of the number of passengers in November 2008 compared to same month last year. The economy class even experienced losses but they were only 4.8% lower compared to last year. This is the highest decline of the number of travellers in the premium seats since 2001.

Although this is bad news, it’s not unexpected. Global financial crisis has forced businesses to cut travel expenses and family who often use premium seats for travel during this season opted to go for economy seats or even preferred budget airlines. BA has also assured their investors that the loss maybe significant but the company’s financial goals for the end of the year could still be met.

On the other hand budget airlines are getting all the attention of holiday passengers. Ryanair has reported an increase of 1% in the number of passengers this month compared to last year. But the general agreement in the transport industry is that the number of travellers has reduced. Job losses in almost every continent have been reported as the global financial crisis is starting to have its full effect.

BA is UK’s flag carrier and is also one of the few companies in the world that started to offer premium economy seats as an added seat options besides economy, business and first class seats.