Business class travel is booming in the UK corporate market – making up nearly one-fifth of all bookings, according to a new report from the Advantage Travel Partnership and Travelogix.
Advantage’s latest Global Business Travel Review, which covers the first five months of 2023 and is produced in collaboration with data analyst Travelogix, found that 18.7 per cent of bookings were for business class cabins – up by 3.6 percentage points on last year and also 3.2 points higher than during the same period of 2019.
First class travel has also increased as a proportion of all bookings – up to 2.6 per cent this year compared with 1.9 per cent in 2019 and 2.5 per cent in 2023.
The research also found that average transaction value reached £432.35 for the five months of this year – a massive 44.9 per cent higher than the average of £298.47 during the same period in 2022.
Part of the reason for this higher transaction value may be due to average trip duration increasing by 15.6 per cent year-on-year to reach an “all-time high” of 8.2 days – up from 7.1 days for the whole of 2022.
Travellers are also now booking much further in advance than they did pre-Covid with an average advanced purchase time of 31.6 days before departure – up by 8.2 days compared with 2019’s figure.
Advantage said that the overall UK domestic corporate travel market had recovered to 90.8 per cent of 2019’s figures based on transaction volumes.
Guy Snelgar, Advantage’s global business travel director, said: “The headline that the travel recovery remains strong, despite current global economic uncertainty and high travel prices, is great news. This matches reports from Advantage members of a buoyant business travel market, particularly in the SME space.
“Shifting priorities and cost challenges are driving changes in many companies’ behaviour, with 68 per cent of Advantage member TMCs seeing approaches from new customers who previously booked business travel themselves but are now recognising the need for a professional travel management company.”
Chris Lewis, founder and CEO of Travelogix, added that most global travel market were “rebounding well” from the pandemic with many now surpassing 2019’s volumes.
“To be almost back in line with 2019 figures is a testament to the strength and endurance of our industry, which is driven by our human need to connect with people face-to-face,” said Lewis.
“The travel behaviour metrics for 2023 to date show us that people are booking further in advance, travelling for longer and spending more on travel than ever before, which is incredibly positive news to report and confirms the value that our industry brings to the global economy.”
The report also looked at several other European markets including Portugal where most bookings are “still being made at the very last minute”. In the central European markets of Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic, spending has been affected by high inflation rates and the impact of the war in Ukraine.