The move further forward to airline premium cabins has been confirmed by the latest World Air Transport Statistics Report.
Released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the figures show international premium class travel (business and first class) grew by 11.8%, outpacing annual growth in global economy travel of 11.5%. The total number of international premium-class travellers in 2024 was 116.9 million, 6% of total international passengers. New Zealand travel agents and airlines operating here have noted that since the pandemic there’s been a willingness to pay for more comfort and space in premium cabins, especially among leisure travellers.
. . . Regional Growth
Asia Pacific achieved 22.8% year-on-year growth, with 21 million premium passengers, although it was outpaced in growth by economy class passenger numbers, up 28.6% to 500.8 million. Growth in premium travel exceeded economy class travel in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America. Europe remained the largest market for international premium travel, with 39.3 million premium passengers while premium travellers as a percentage of all travellers were highest in the Middle East at 14.7%, the report says.
The US remains the world’s biggest aviation market with 876 million passengers in 2024 on the strength of its domestic market, growing 5.2% on 2023. China was the second-biggest passenger market, with 741 million passengers, a growth of 18.7%.
. . . Top Airport Pairs
Asia Pacific dominated the ranking for the world’s busiest airport pairs, with Jeju-Seoul in Korea the most popular route globally, with 13.2 million passengers flying between the two airports in 2024. In the top 10, only one airport pair, Jeddah-Riyadh, was not in the APAC region. New York John F. Kennedy International Airport-Los Angeles was the busiest route in North America with 2.2 million passengers while Barcelona-Palma de Mallorca was the busiest within Europe with two million passengers.
. . . Popular Planes
Narrowbody aircraft from Boeing and Airbus were among the most used aircraft in 2024, shows the report. Boeing 737 aircraft (including all variants) flew 10 million flights with 2.4 trillion available seat kilometres in 2024. This was followed by the Airbus A320 with 7.9 million flights and 1.7 trillion ASKs and the Airbus A321 with 3.4 million flights and 1.1 trillion ASKs.
