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Premium leisure is the new business class, says BA
British Airways says its shorthaul business class is increasingly reliant on demand from premium leisure travellers.
Head of worldwide sales, Dale Moss said: “There is a growing segment in premium leisure, which is providing demand for Club Europe.”
He added that the carrier would continue to try to drive down the cost of shorthaul business class by economising on areas such as catering and the number of flight crew. He also said aircraft could be utilised more efficiently, and be put into service for 8.5 to 9.5 hours a day instead of 6.5 to 8 hours.
BA said the future of its longhaul First Class product also lay in the balance. BA head of UK and Ireland marketing Jayne O’Brien said the First Class product was only “highly profitable” on 15 routes. She said BA would not disclose which routes these were.
Mr Moss said: “The future of first class with us is a tenuous one. It works for us with about 15 routes, but to remove it from other routes would be costly. It’s not easy to change the configuration of aircraft.”
Ms O’Brien said that First Class is located in the nose of the aircraft, which is a difficult shape to fill. She said that if the class were re-configured as Club World, it would only accommodate two more seats – so it was probably not worth the cost of adapting the planes.
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