Premium air travel sees increasing demand - IATA

GENEVA – IATA reports that growth in premium air travel accelerated in May, rising 6.5% on-year compared to 3.8% in April. It says demand conditions are picking up again, after signs of wavering during recent past months.

“Recent data shows easing downward pressure from emerging markets, particularly China, but indicators of trade in Asia remain volatile, suggesting the outlook for regional business travel is uncertain.” Within the Far East premium travel market, there was a week increase of just 2.6% in May, but other markets experienced solid growth - the North Atlantic route increased by a strong 10.3%;
“The outlook for air travel is positive - global business activity (manufacturing + services) is now at a three-year high,” IATA says. “But growth in manufacturing and export orders is yet to recover to 2013 year-end rates. This places some doubts over strong acceleration in trade and business-related demand in the near-term.” www.iata.org (ATI).