First and Business Class travel between Africa and Middle East increases by 40.3 percent

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its latest survey said that the international business travel on African routes continued to rise in March this year. The survey indicated that the First Class and Business Class travel between Africa and Middle East increased by 40.3 percent y-o-y and between Africa and Far East by 13.8 percent.

According to the survey, the increase in first and business class travel in March 2012 was because the routes had recovered from the disruption caused by the Arab Spring in the Middle East and by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011.

The survey pointed out the premium travel also rose by 20.2 percent on routes within Africa, reflecting an increase in routes flown by South African Airways and competing foreign airlines. The premium travel also increased by 11.6 percent between Africa and Europe.

The survey further cited that the performance of Economy Class travel was also strong with growth of 7.5 percent between January and March.