Business class travel rises 40%
Luxury air travel is becoming big. You may today readily get an economy class ticket but not so a business class one. Most of the domestic airlines are recording between 30% and 40% growth in their business class air travel. Manoj Chacko, GM-global sales in Kingfisher Airlines, says Kingfisher First has seen exponential growth, with the business class seat occupancy growing at the rate of 30% on a month on month basis. The Delhi-Mumbai route on Kingfisher’s Airbus A321 aircraft has over 200 seats (32 seats per flight, 7 flights a day), a round trip costing close to Rs 28,000. The seat occupancy on this is between 70% and 80%, says Chacko. Two years ago, the business class on most airlines would see a handful of passengers, even as the economy class went full to capacity, says an industry source. Paramount Airways, which offers business class travel at rates lower than that in other airlines on select routes like Chennai-Bangalore and Coimbatore-Hyderabad, offers 11 first class seats.“On an average our first class has a seat occupancy of around 70% and that number is growing,” said Thiagarajan, managing director, Paramount Airways. According to him, the demand for business class travel has increased such that the company now operates four flights daily between Chennai-Madurai and Chennai-Coimbatore, which to start with had one flight in operation. Thiagarajan said Paramount clocked a seat occupancy of around 90% with most of the flights going chock-a-block. Even, Indian has recorded a growth of 20%-40% in its business class travel, according to company officials. “For mornings and evenings flights, between any of the metros, it is hard for a person to get a business class ticket,” says Kingfisher’s Chacko, adding that as most business meetings happen in the afternoon, people fly in the morning and fly out in the evening or night. According to one expert, the demand for luxury travel is encouraging some airlines to consider introducing a first class as seen on international flights. “Today we are talking of a certain segment, which is looking at owing private jets. This is the kind of luxury that people like to indulge in while travelling,” he added.
