IATA’s assessment of premium and economy travel in April was released. In summary, keypoints found:
Premium travel was up 3.8% in April year-on-year, an acceleration on March growth of 1.9%;
Demand drivers have been wavering over recent months, but now appear to be stabilizing;
Advanced economies continue to see stronger improvements than emerging markets;
But May data shows that recent declines in business activity in China could now be reversing;
Route-level results indicate a pick-up in the Far East market, which rose 7.2% in April, compared to 1.6% in March;
Markets connected to the Middle East also performed strongly, but this is in line with performance so far this year;
Gulf economies are recording strong increases in business confidence with robust performance of non-oil producing sectors;
This supports demand growth on markets like Far EastโMiddle East (11.5%), EuropeโMiddle East (8.6%) and AfricaโMiddle East (12.3%);
The outlook for premium travel is positive, with business confidence showing a small rise in May after slowdown prior months.