Jun 19, 2018 06:13 GMT

CWT / Travelport Research: PremiumEconomy a Hot Ticket for SingaporeBusiness Travelers

SINGAPORE, 19 JUNE 2018: Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), the global travelmanagement company, and Travelport, the leading Travel CommercePlatform, have found that premium economy is the fastest growing cabinsegment for business travelers in Singapore.

An analysis of over 1.3 million bookings made between January 1, 2015 andDecember 31, 2017, with Singapore as the point of origin, showed that thenumber of premium economy seats booked for corporate travel increased at

an average rate of 157% year-on-year. In comparison, corporate bookings forother classes recorded negative growth over this three-year period.

“One can easily see the appeal that premium economy has for corporatetravel programs,” said Richard Johnson, Director, Asia Pacific, CWT SolutionsGroup. “It gives travelers that much-needed extra comfort versus economyclass on medium-to-long-haul flights, while costing their companiessignificantly less than a business class ticket.”

The seat share of premium economy as a proportion of total bookings hasincreased steadily, too. In 2015, premium economy comprised only 1.23% oftotal corporate travel bookings, and this grew to 7% by the end of 2017.Meanwhile, the economy class seat share declined to 54.46% in 2017,compared to 60.27% in 2015. Business class bookings have remainedrelatively flat, comprising 37.66% of corporate travel bookings in 2017 versus37.59% in 2015.

“It’s interesting that the increase in premium economy bookings seems tohave come largely at the expense of economy class, and not business class,”said Johnson. “This makes sense, given the trend we’re seeing wherecompanies are looking beyond travel costs and paying more attention totraveler comfort and productivity.”

Flying economy class on medium- to long-haul flights was identified as thethird-strongest stress-inducing factor for business travelers, according to anearlier study done by Carlson Wagonlit Travel called the Travel Stress Index.Such stress results in lost time and reduces the overall productivity of thetraveler.

“When you look at corporate travel policies, we have seen more companiesallowing their employees to travel premium economy over the last fewyears,” added Johnson. “Still, only around a quarter of our clients havepolicies that explicitly allow their travelers to book this cabin class,suggesting that there’s still a lot of room for growth for premium economy incorporate travel.”

Looking at supply, it’s clear that airlines are increasingly seeing a viablebusiness case for premium economy. At the end of 2017, one in five airlinesflying into Singapore offered premium economy, with the service available onmore than 30% of routes from Singapore. For example, four in 10 planes from

Singapore’s national carrier, Singapore Airlines, offer premium economy as anoption, with plans to increase this further.

Supply seat share of premium economy versus other cabin classes has alsoincreased at a steady pace. The number of premium economy seats availableas a proportion of total airline seats increased from 2.47% in 2015 to 3.55%in 2017. The data suggests that airlines have made room for premiumeconomy by reducing the number of first and economy class seats.

“With this trend we see, it has become even more imperative for corporatesto work with technology partners and travel management companies who areable to provide accurate and comprehensive content choices for theirtravellers,” commented Mark Meehan, Managing Director Asia Pacific forTravelport. “Technology such as Branded Fares and Ancillaries, which canprovide access to rich images of airline seat options and other airlineproducts, will give corporates better value and coverage of available airlinecontent.”

Carlson Wagonlit Travel

Companies and governments rely on us to keep their people connected. Weprovide their travelers with a consumer-grade travel experience, combininginnovative technology with our vast experience. Every day, we look afterenough travelers to fill more than 260 Boeing 787s and 100,000 hotel rooms- and handle 105 events. We operate in around 150 countries, and in 2017posted a total transaction volume of more than US$ 23 billion.

Travelport

Travelport (NYSE: TVPT) is the technology company that makes theexperience of buying and managing travel continually better. It operates atravel commerce platform providing distribution, technology, payment andother solutions for the global travel and tourism industry. The Companyfacilitates travel commerce by connecting the world’s leading travel providerswith online and offline travel buyers in a proprietary business-to-business(B2B) travel platform.

Travelport has a leadership position in airline merchandising, hotel content

and distribution, car rental, mobile commerce and B2B payment solutions.The Company also provides critical IT services to airlines, such as shopping,ticketing, departure control and other solutions. With net revenue of over$2.4 billion in 2017, Travelport is headquartered in Langley, U.K., has over4,000 employees and is represented in approximately 180 countries andterritories.

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