PREMIUM AIR


PREMIUM TRENDS While there is going to be an understandable focus over the next couple of years on new aircraft and the premium cabins being installed on them, a more immediate concern to travel buyers is how much it is going to cost to travel at the front of aircraft this year. Several TMCs have produced forecasts


Above: Qatar Airways’ new Q Suite business class seats can be configured into tables of four


travellers. Q Suite has also been installed on Qatar’s new fleet of A350-1000s. Jo Savory, head of account management


at travel management company Clarity, says: “Qatar Airways’ Q Suite has introduced tables of four, making it easy for groups of colleagues to convene and hold meetings when travelling. This is going to be a big change in terms of increasing productivity during travel. “The Etihad Residence has been an industry game-changer. It’s currently the only airline accommodation of its kind, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see other airlines compete to launch similar luxury cabins in 2018.” In terms of any new revolutionary types


of service or onboard product, most eyes have turned to the new “ultra-long-haul” flights, such as Qantas’ imminent new Heathrow to Perth, which is due to launch on 25 March using a Dreamliner 787-9. The flight will travel 14,498 kilometres in a whopping 17 hours – this is only slightly shorter than the 14,535 kilometres covered by Qatar Airways’ Doha to Auckland service that launched a year ago. This could be just the start for these ultra-


long-haul flights, thinks Kavon Bagheri, air product manager for FCM Travel Solutions. “We are likely to see Qantas challenge


Airbus to match its current Boeing 787-9 direct service from London to Perth and introduce a direct A380 flight from London to Sydney,” he predicts. “This gives Qantas the ability to tout themselves as the first and only ultra- long-haul airline, and aims to offer a better customer experience on the 20-hour+ direct flight by reducing seat numbers and offering walk-up lounges and bars.”


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“We are likely to see Qantas challenge Airbus to match its current Boeing 787-9 direct service from


London to Perth and introduce a direct A380 flight from London to Sydney”


on the likely direction of premium airfares during 2018. The latest of which, from American Express Global Business Travel, suggests that there will only be “marginal gains” in ticket prices, with the growing strength of the global economy being mostly offset by an increase in capacity to meet this higher demand. American Express GBT forecasts that


UK carriers’ fares will “remain flat” in 2018 with only a marginal increase of 0.25 per cent expected on long-haul business class prices. However, long-haul business fares are expected to rise more strongly in other key markets such as France (+2 per cent), Germany (+2.75 per cent) and the US (+4.9 per cent) as their economies are set for faster GDP (gross domestic product) growth than the UK. BCD Travel’s research arm Advito


is forecasting an overall rise in global long-haul business class airfares of 1 per cent this year with the highest rises on intercontinental prices in Europe, set to


Above: Qantas will be operating a nonstop Dreamliner on the Heathrow-Perth route BBT March/April 2018 69


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