Data from the flagship corporate travel division of Flight Centre Travel Group, FCM Travel, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), witnessed a 20 per cent increase in premium class travel bookings in the first quarter of 2024 versus Q4-2023.
Sunny Sodhi, Managing Director of FCM Travel India, said that conglomerates, manufacturing, and IT sectors, just to name a few, have been consistently travelling for business growth, both domestically and internationally.
“India is soon going to be the 7th largest business travel market in the world and the aviation boom in India is most certainly supporting the growth in business travel. Business travellers are now more willing to spend a little extra for a premium experience which has led to a demand for both premium and business class travel,” said Sodhi.
“Domestic air capacity has increased more than 3 per cent but due to the demand in travel, we have seen average ticket prices increase by 9 per cent which is attributed to a much stronger economic growth and a general increase in demand for travel. Popular domestic routes for business travel include Delhi to Mumbai, Mumbai to Delhi and Bangalore to Mumbai,” added Sodhi.
“International air capacity has also increased by 14 per cent due to India’s growing aviation sector hence, however, average international airfares have softened by 15 per cent which is a general global trend of yields decreasing across airfares,” concluded Sodhi.
