TAM’s new A350 will fly Madrid-Sao Paulo from April
Malaysia Airlines will start a major
upgrade in April, when the first Airbus A330 is fitted with flat business seats and 16-inch TVs. The refurbishment is, however, unlikely to be extended to the A380s used to London.
ATTRACTING BUSINESS One wildcard for 2016 is Norwegian Air Shuttle, which introduces new routes to Boston and San Francisco’s secondary Oakland airport in May. The latter route will start days after BA’s new San Jose service. Norwegian hopes to be a budget option to Silicon Valley. “Oakland has the potential to be a business route due to the tech companies based there,” says a Norwegian spokesman. “Gatwick’s traffic, as a whole, is 20 per cent business – that is a goal for us, but we have to have the frequency.” The airline, which is now
early booking and taking into account stopover connections, a proper business class product is usually available at the same price, sometimes even cheaper.”
He says the concept creates a lot of interest from his travellers, but actual bookings are negligible. “Either business class is chosen [because of the better product at only a small, if any, additional cost] or if cost is the driving factor, economy is booked,” he says.
Nor does he believe modular buying will seep into business class: “That would completely run opposite to the idea of business class. That might work in the leisure sector but is not something most corporate buyers would want.”
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
“If you don’t have a corporate account, being able to fly to the west coast for less than £300 opens a lot of doors”
daily on the Gatwick-JFK route, says it has “not quantified” how many business travellers it is attracting, but admits it is still “overwhelmingly leisure”. That could change this year, however. Norwegian introduced the first of its Boeing 787-9s to Gatwick in February, where it now has three long-haul aircraft. Last October, the airline agreed to pur-
However, Chambers-CTM
director Stuart Birkin can see the day when business class perks become options if the lower fare categories are purchased. “In that case, I can see airlines selling access to their lounges and other airport and onboard experiences – for example, valet parking, fast track security, extra baggage allowance or free or discounted wifi.”
Another factor in 2016 will be new aircraft types and BTD’s Williams sees more regional business routes being launched. “The traditional hub-and-spoke model is under threat,” he believes. Birkin adds simply: “Corporates want to fly on newer aircraft.”
chase 19 of these stretched Dreamliners, which will mean it will have 38 long- haul aircraft by 2020 – roughly the same number as Virgin Atlantic. Norwegian has no business cabin, but
its premium economy section, which has a 46-inch pitch, is a match for many, par- ticularly as it includes lounge use. The airline has just appointed a UK manager for its Norwegian Reward frequent flyer scheme, which gives cash discounts on ticket purchases. “That’s an indication that we are serious,” says the spokesman. To underline this, Norwegian recently took a delegation of ten small- to medi- um-sized enterprises [SMEs] to New York on a trade mission to pitch to contacts there. The spokesman adds: “If you don’t have a corporate account, being able to fly to the west coast for less than £300 opens a lot of doors.”
Getting new kit, though, does not necessarily persuade clients to switch. Norwegian is one airline using the new 787 to expand, but the airline’s impact in the corporate world remains small. “We’re seeing the odd SME owner give it a go,” says Williams. Similarly, he adds, the appeal of “really very good” products offered by full-service carriers that have new aircraft, such as Vietnam Airlines, China Southern and China Eastern, is limited by a somewhat blinkered attitude from travellers who want to stick with their own loyalty schemes. Birkin agrees: “FFPs
[frequent flyer points] are still an influence, and often ‘schedule’ can be used as a reason to
take a higher fare rather than fly on another airline and not gain FFPs.” One piece of good news for travellers grabbing those FFPs is that some corporates are finally realising that if you take away the perks, staff turnover increases. BTD’s Williams is seeing a
trend for some major accounts to reverse their economy-only policy to help staff retention. “They’ve done the maths and factored quality of life into the bottom line. Twelve months ago they were weeding it out, but they’ve found that productivity, retention and staff happiness is better.”
Who knew? Perhaps 2016 will also go down as the year that common sense returned.
BBT MARCH/APRIL 2016 71
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