Business class air travel: Is it the best way for air travel?

Business Class

Today saw British Airways Plc's business class-only service from London to New York taking its first flight. Chief executive officer of the company, Willie Walsh believes that the service will turn substantial profits for the company in the first year alone.

"We believe there is a big demand for this service," the CEO said in a Bloomberg Television interview from London City airport. It is expected the flights will attract business flyers who now travel from Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, as well as some private jet customers, he said.

For airports, first and business class are certainly worth it. The London-based airline, Europe's third-largest, has historically made almost all of its profit from first- and business-class travel. Last year, BA garnered 45 percent of revenue from premium tickets that accounted for only 13 percent of seat sales. Premium traffic fell 12 percent last month, compared with a 1.3 percent gain in coach.

But is spending that extra money and flying business class really worth it?

Yes, is the answer to that. For any businessman and woman constantly on the go, it can be argued that the extra luxury that comes with flying business is earned and deserved. The flights are purposely designed to not only allow extra comfort, but they enable professionals to work on the go as well, so that they aren't missing those hours at work.

Although travelling business class comes with a bigger price ticket, it seems to be the favoured choice by many. In fact, if you look at the infra-graph below, you'll see how the Metropolitan Police, and Scotland Yard have spent money on business class travel, to get that extra leg room.

If you take the cost into consideration, it costs nearly five times as much to fly business class, as it does to fly economy class, which in these economic times is a huge hike. Yet being able to complete work mid-air for a busy executive is vital.

However, only a company can decide whether travelling business, is actually worth the expense or not.

Like this article? Get the RSS feed: