Indian fliers back to travelling business class

While a British national is cautious before selecting the business-class option for air travel in the aftermath of recession, Indians are back to travelling with pomp and leisure, thanks to the booming economy. 

According to travel agents and airlines, the business-class is going full and it is difficult to find a ticket, pushing the travellers to go for first class.

Parag Kantharia (42), a businessman from Colaba, and his family travelled business-class for their vacation to London this Christmas.  “During recession, we had flown economy just to save some money,” says Kantharia.

According to Rajesh Rateria, chairman, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), “Business and first-class in both domestic and international flights are going full this season. We are finding it difficult to get confirmation for tickets in these classes.”

Even the national carrier Air India (AI) says that it has seen a huge surge of passengers in these classes. “Flights have been going full with occupancy of 75% to 80% in the first class,” says the spokesperson for AI. 

“It’s thanks to the booming economy that people are even travelling `J’ class,” she says.

Divia Thani Daswani, editor of a luxury travel magazine, says, “It’s difficult to find a business class ticket.  The leisure traveller did not switch to economy during recession but cut down on the number of trips.”