EUROPE. Travel data analyst ForwardKeys has published new research which reveals that flights taken by individuals between European countries for business purposes reached 55% of 2019 levels in the last week of September. This marks a recovery from just 5% by the same measure in the week covering 21-27 January 2021.
“Looking at ticketing for Intra-European travel, we see that business travel has been making a rebound over the last quarter and it continues to improve at a steady pace,” said Olivier Ponti, VP of Insights at ForwardKeys.
The new data has been produced in partnership with European Cities Marketing and its Barometer Report.
“This [the recovery of business travel] has been welcoming news for us at European Cities Marketing, encouraging our tourism boards members and MICE partners to rethink their live events strategy for 2022,” said Flavie Baudot, Acting Head of European Cities Marketing.
The latest flight research also deduces that long-haul luxury travel into Europe is gaining momentum. ForwardKeys has illustrated this through highlighting an increase in the share of passengers travelling in Business, First and Premium Economy classes from Los Angeles International Airport to London airports.
A slight increase was recorded for First Class flight tickets booked on these routes for travel between 3 July and 31 December, as of 8 October. There were more significant rises in Business Class (22% share, +7% percentage points) and Premium Economy Class (12%, +6%).
ForwardKeys also said that throughout the Northern Hemisphere summer, it observed this trend for higher levels of premium class long-haul travel to Italy, Turkey and Greece in particular, mainly from the source markets of the US and Dubai.
“Premium cabins are experiencing a stronger rebound than the economy class ones as affluent travellers take to the skies and look for a more exclusive and safer perceived experience,” Ponti said.
ForwardKeys has identified London as the top inbound destination city in Europe in Q4, although the number recorded is -62.9% down on Q4 2019. The analyst observed that this is being aided by the easing of entry restrictions for vaccinated travellers as well as the streamlining of the traffic light system.
Meanwhile, ForwardKeys described the top ten most resilient destination cities in the continent for Q4 as “a Southern European affair”.
Ponti said: “The dominance of Southern Europe will continue from the Summer well until the end of the year. Driving this trend are travellers who may have been reluctant to travel during Summer due to uncertainty regarding travel restrictions, thus they are now taking up their holidays in the Autumn in warmer parts of Europe.”
