Business airfares on the rise: American Express Travel

American Express Travel released its Business Travel Monitor for the first four months of 2010, which showed a 3% year-on-year increase in the average international fare paid by business travellers in 1Q2010 (Airline News Resource, 28-Jun-2010). Other highlights include:

• Average international airfare:
  • 1Q2010: USD1,726, +3% year-on-year;
  • Apr-2010: USD1,821, n/a;
• Average domestic airfare:
  • 1Q2010: USD225, +6%;
  • Apr-2010: USD231, n/a;
• International business-class passengers as % of total passengers:
  • 1Q2010: 41%, +2 ppts.

According to American Express Business Travel, London remained the No1 business travel destination in the European/Middle East/Africa region in 1Q2010, followed by Frankfurt and Paris. In the Asia Pacific region, the top three business travel destinations remained the same in 1Q2010: Tokyo, Shanghai and Singapore. Hong Kong was replaced by Beijing as the fourth most popular business travel destination during the period.