Asian markets: strong demand.

Those all-important business travellers are returning to the skies with airline industry trade body IATA reporting that the number of passengers buying premium airline tickets increased in June.

The economic recovery has helped fill first and business-class seats, with demand for premium tickets up 16.6% compared with a year ago, IATA said. Increased passenger numbers and ticket prices lifted premium revenue by 40%.

Economy seats

However, the economic climate meant that there was a much lower 9.5% increase in revenue for economy seats, after recession and austerity measures in some countries dampened demand for leisure travel.

Regional variations reflected where business was most buoyant with strong demand for seats on Asian, South American and Middle Eastern routed, but transatlantic flights less so.

Profits

Overall, IATA expects airlines to return to the black this year, with profits predictions of $2.5bn against earlier gloomy forecasts of a $2.8bn loss.

However, there were signs that growth had slowed in the second quarter as economic activity returned to pre-crisis levels. Year-on-year growth in the second quarter, adjusted for the disruption from the Icelandic ash cloud, slowed to 9%.

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