OAG Travel News

It used to be that airlines only offered special offers on business class tickets during the summer when premium traffic was lighter. Many passengers who normally travelled in business class thanks to their companies the rest of the year more often travelled in the back of the plane in July and August, along with their partners and/or families. A sale was a great way to get them to upgrade, at personal expense, to fly how they had become accustomed.

It is undoubtedly a sign of the weakening economy and chase for premium traffic that this year’s summer airline sales have carried on beyond the end of summer (or what passed for summer this year).

British Airways for example is offering lower prices on fares until 23 September. You can fly to Beijing from as little as £1,999 between the beginning of December and the end of January. The same fare is offered on certain winter dates to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Elsewhere in Asia, the airline is offering Club World tickets to Bangalore from £1,499 return. Johannesburg and Cape Town start from £1,959 return in December and January.

The fares do come with restrictions: you have to stay a Saturday night and you cannot change the ticket or get a refund.

Virgin Atlantic has put up the sale signs too. Its deals end on 23 September, like those of British Airways.

The airline’s best deals to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo match those of BA too – at a shade under two grand. Mumbai and Delhi business fares start at £1,399 return including taxes. It also has premium economy tickets to New York from £637 return and to Los Angeles and San Francisco from £757 return.

Meanwhile, on 5 May, bmi starts a “better for business” sale until the end of September. The airline is using the sale to promote the idea of face-to-face meetings with business contacts.

Unusually, the sale is valid on tickets for travel any time until 31 March 2009 and covers the airline’s entire route network, including domestic connections to long-haul flights.

The carrier is offering business class fares of £1,099 inclusive of taxes to Damascus and £799 to Cairo and Tel Aviv. Business flights from Heathrow to Dublin, Belfast and Edinburgh cost from £145 one way and to Amsterdam and Brussels from £160 one way.

Flights to Moscow start from £999 return, compared to a normal price of £1,421 return. The airline has announced it is to double the number of services on this route from the beginning of the winter schedule in October.

Betty Low, editor of the magazine Business Travel World, says: “Although ‘non-essential’ business travel has been pruned out of existence during the past five years, there is very much an ongoing pressure within UK plc to downgrade business travellers to the back of the bus to save the pennies as part of general cost-cutting. The business class cabin - especially on the lucrative North Atlantic route - has always been resistant to downturns and the source of airline profits but the credit squeeze, whether real or imagined, could be hitting. With bmi advertising return air fares between London and Moscow for under £1,000 there are bargains to be had.”

Norman Gage, director of business travel at agency network Advantage, says: "It's not unusual to have a seat sale at the moment, but it is unusual to have a business class sale. I think it is about airlines trying to amass cash to tide them over the tough times ahead. I think right now the travel industry has its fingers crossed more firmly than it ever has that with the return to schools. Will business travellers start travelling again? We are into a big unknown."

Source: www.timesonline.co.uk  By Mark Frary