Recession forces airlines to rethink first class

22 Sep 2009, 1428 hrs IST, New York Times

NEW YORK: A couple of years ago, airlines seemed to be falling over themselves to offer the best amenities to their first-and business-class World's first fuel cell aircraft Aircrafts from Lockheed Martin Boeing's 787 Dreamliner Sukhoi Superjet 100 customers on internationalflights. They featured seats that turned into beds, gourmet food, personal televisions, even designer sleepwear. And no wonder. Those passengers may have occupied just the front of the plane but they represented a significant part of airline revenue. The economic downturn changed all of that, as the number of travelers buying those premium tickets on long flights dropped precipitously. So now, to try to stem losses, some airlines are considering shrinking their business- and first-class sections or even eliminating first-class service, as Continental, Delta and others already have done. One option for some airlines is introducing, or expanding, a level of service called premium economy, which falls between economy and business class in price and amenities. UnitedAirlines, Cathay Pacific and Qantas are among those weighing such changes. "In building up their premium classes, airlines have been building themselves a castle in the air that’s ultimately unsupportable," said Peter Morris, the chief economist in London for Ascend Worldwide, an aviation consulting company. "Unless the business world carries on expanding its needs for these services, the castle, to some extent, will come crashing down."