Each month, IAG, the parent company of British Airways and Iberia publishes monthly figures, showing key figures such as traffic, in terms of revenue passenger kilometres, and capacity, in terms of available seat kilometres. It has just published its traffic figures for March.
For travel buyers, the figures are useful because they give an indication of how well balanced traffic and capacity are and whether there is scope for negotiation — in broad terms, fuller planes in particular regions means there is less likelihood of a discount.
Along with these figures, the group also publishes a figure to show how well premium cabins are doing. Our chart this week compares this premium traffic growth with the overall traffic growth.
What the chart reveals is that in most recent months, overall traffic grows more quickly than premium traffic. In March 2015 for example, overall traffic grew by 7.4% while premium traffic grew by 5.4%.
It means that premium traffic is becoming a smaller part of the overall traffic mix, something that travel buyers can use to their advantage.
