Luxury in Business Travel Rebounding

Sadly, for many fliers, flying in real style is a thing of the past. For these travelers, the ever tighter profit margins in coach class have progressively bit into the quality of the experience. At the top end there does, however, seem to be a trend for bring back some of the luxury that we used to see in air travel.

We’re not talking about lie-flat beds and four-course meals, these are things pretty much standard in transcontinental business and first class flights these days. What we’re seeing is an expanding demand for this type of travel and airlines are responding in two ways. Firstly, more space on aircraft is being devoted to luxurious travel. And, more interestingly, they’re trying to get ever more luxurious, particular for international travel.

Emerging trend, or back to the past?

The facts speak for themselves:  According to the Global Business Travel Association, while business travel in the United States is forecast to grow by 7.1 percent to $293 billion in 2014, international travel is expected to increase almost twice as fast, at 13 percent, to reach $37 billion. “The gap between what’s going on at the front of the plane and in the back has never been wider,” said Tim Winship, publisher of the FrequentFlyer.com website.

What’s going on

Layouts have changed in business class, with all seats having direct axis to the aisle. This means no one has to climb over a sleeping neighbor if they need to leave their seat. The seats are getting better too – Air France new business class seats cost at least $68,000.

The range of things you can now do on some airlines has also increased. Emirates’ new A380s have two showers in first class and some airlines have bars and lounges on board.

A good nights’ sleep

Almost all long haul flights now offer lie-flat seats, or airlines will soon introduce them. This is the result of a number of factors; passengers are willing to pay more for them and aircraft can fly longer without stopping to refuel. This has resulted in actually less service – people are now sleeping and don’t want to b disturbed.

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