First Class Flight Travel Dropping
According to airline industry body IATA international first class flights have been hit by the Japanese nuclear crisis, slumping world trade and the turmoil in the Middle East.
At the same time, economy class travel has seen a rebound, but it may not last as fuel costs surge and price increases weigh on demand from tourists who are more sensitive to cost. In April the premium-travel market shrank by 1.3%, and was running at less than half its 2010 growth rate. Much of this weakness was attributed to the combination of fall-out from the Japanese crisis and Middle Eastern turmoil, but the IATA noted that business confidence world wide seems to have taken a hit. They expected the softness in premium travel to extend throughout the second quarter as well.