Are holidaymakers about to commandeer the business class cabin?

During the carefree 1990s there was one flight that made even the most luxurious business class experience seem mundane. Every winter, British Airways would put on Concorde flights to Barbados, carrying 100 well-heeled passengers to the sun in style.

The £6,000 flights from London often arrived in the Caribbean earlier than they had left, thanks to the time difference, and BA staff (who sometimes carried their swimming costumes as hand luggage to help them get to the beach quicker) recall regulars including Elton John, Sting and Michael Winner. A Rolls-Royce limousine would often be on hand to chauffeur guests to the famous Sandy Lane hotel, and trips over Christmas and New Year sold out months in advance.

While Concorde’s New York service was engineered around the needs of the business traveller who wanted to jet in to sign a deal or attend a board meeting, the Barbados flights were surely the ultimate expression of high-rolling leisure travel.

Nearly 20 years since the end of supersonic passenger travel, Concorde is a sepia-tinged memory. But as the pandemic ripples through aviation and crushes corporate travel, it seems airlines’ business-class products might again be commandeered by well-heeled holidaymakers.

No one knows just how much business travel will be permanently lost to Zoom, tightened travel budgets and heightened environmental awareness. Estimates range from as much as half to as little as 10 per cent, but even the lower end of the range would be a problem for airlines, as margins and profitability are so much higher in the premium cabins.

That means finding people willing to pay high fares to go on holiday or visit family is suddenly more important than ever. BA’s chief executive Sean Doyle has talked of “buffering” the loss of corporate clients with premium leisure travellers, while Virgin Atlantic’s boss Shai Weiss has detected the same trends. “We will maybe have to reduce prices if we are to attract premium leisure, but we will. The demand is there,” he told the FT earlier this year.

‘We will maybe have to reduce prices if we are to attract premium leisure, but we will. The demand is there

Weiss should know better than most. Virgin has long traded off a glamorous jet-setting image, with bars on board its planes and a lounge at Heathrow which offers cocktails, a games room and spa. None of these perks is likely to be of particular interest to a frequent-flying lawyer hoping to catch some sleep on the way to New York. But they are pitched perfectly at leisure travellers who have splashed out and want more than convenience, good WiFi and a flatbed.

Rival airlines might not be about to risk upending their business models overnight during a pandemic to follow Virgin’s lead. But look carefully and there have already been some changes. Emirates and Swiss have both unveiled premium economy cabins, which tend to be highly profitable and are aimed squarely at leisure passengers. BA has also been experimenting, including offering lounge access to passengers flying economy if they book an expensive trip with the company’s holiday arm.

Given the scarcity of people flying anywhere at the moment, there has been no word yet on whether the changes have upset the delicate equilibrium of the Terminal 5 lounges. But in the post-pandemic world, this kind of unbundling of the premium experience is set to become more widespread. Finnair recently announced a “business light” option — essentially a cheaper business class ticket which offers no lounge access, seat reservations, WiFi, priority check in or baggage allowance. Customers can then pay to add these extras back in. Emirates and Qatar Airways have gone down a similar route.

Paying for every convenience might seem like the antithesis of the premium experience. In fact, it all feels a bit like a low-cost carrier. But given that many leisure passengers now choose a flight using price comparison websites such as Skyscanner or Google Flights, offering a cheaper headline price for a business-class ticket makes a lot of sense. For a price-sensitive traveller who wants the luxury experience on board but does not want to pay the full fare, it could also prove very popular.

But if airlines have to really drop their prices to fill up their premium cabins, don’t expect them to shout about it. They will try to keep pricing opaque for the very cheapest seats by packaging them up as part of holiday bookings or luxury tour packages, industry experts say.

After all, they are hoping those corporate customers with yawning expense accounts will come back to rule the roost one day.

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