Slight easing in rate of fall
The number of air passengers travelling business class fell by 19.2% in March compared to the same month in 2008, according to new figures from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The Association in its premium traffic figures said the March fall was slightly less than the 21.1% decline for February.
IATA said economy had slowed marginally year on year from 8.3% in 2008 to 8.2% this year.
It said the weakest premium market was in Asia Pacific. Premium traffic on flights from the region across the Pacific fell by 29.3%, to and from Europe by 20.1% and within the region by 29.2%.
There was a slowdown in the rate of decline in the Atlantic market which fell by 16.8% in March compared to 22.5% in February.
This was also seen in the European market where premium traffic fell by 22.9% in March compared with 27.1% in the previous month.
IATA said the Atlantic figures possibly reflected "the stronger improvements in business confidence in the US."
Taking into account the slowdown in Europe's fall, it added: "So there are some tentative signs of the decline in business travel bottoming out in some markets."
IATA said: "Business confidence is improving and world trade appears to have bottomed but the travel data is consistent with the view that business expectations of recovery remain weak while consumers remain concerned about job security and their highly leveraged balanced sheets."
Total passenger numbers were down 9.3% in March, after a 9.6% decline in February.
IATA said that "after adjusting for the impact of the leap year in 2008 on the February numbers and the late Easter this year in the March data, it seems that underlying passenger growth deteriorated from a decline of around 6% in February to approximately 7.5% in March."
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