The growing appeal of business aircraft travel in the USA is eroding the number of high-fare business passengers on scheduled airlines, according to an air travel analysis by US consultancy the Velocity Group. “The best-paying passengers on US airlines have dropped by almost half in the last five years, often to the benefit of business aviation,” says the Washington DC-based company.
The growing acceptance of business aircraft, the expansion of fractional ownership and pre-paid on-demand charter card programmes and a “continued rise in the airline ‘misery’ index have driven a steady expansion in the number of higher-yield travellers using business jet and turboprop aircraft”, says Velocity Group partner Gerald Bernstein. “There are approximately 13 million one-way trips taken annually on business aircraft. The share of trips using these aircraft is now almost one-third that of airline high-yield trips,” he adds.
The analysis also reveals the number of higher-yield trips has fallen from 18% of overall airline travel before 9/11, to 9% in 2005. “Despite a rise in total airline passenger trips, the number of higher-yield trips has declined from almost 80 million to 41 million since the year 2000; 20 million have been lost in the past two years alone,” Bernstein says. “It’s tough for most airlines to make a decent profit with 85% of passengers flying on discount fares. It will be interesting to see if the imminent competition anticipated from the emerging air taxi operations will further erode the airline high-yield segment,” he adds.
Source: Flight International
