High air travel costs continue to be a major cost factor in travel budgets. Photo Credit: Adobe stock/Maridav
FCM Consulting’s latest Global Trends Report, Q2-2023 indicates that
whilst the volume of business trips has increased, travel patterns have
stabilised. Disruption continues due to extreme weather and airport
staffing shortages. Here are other highlights of the report:
Increase in domestic air fares
With high demand in domestic travel, domestic air travel demand in
China is just 1% lower than in 2019. Japan has seen a rise of 20% and
India, a rise of 13%.
Airline seat forecast
Global domestic seats offered have surpassed 2019 volumes and are
forecasted to be an additional 4.1% above 2019 volumes. The APAC has
seen a rise of 6.9% in domestic seats but is still 22.5% lower compared
to international seats.
The forecast across the 20 major airlines reported a 93% return of seats in 2023 as compared to 2019.
China Eastern Airlines leads in Asia with a 103% forecast, followed by Singapore Airlines at 97% and Cathay Pacific at 72%.
Increase in business class fares
The Middle East saw the highest increase in business class fares of
29% followed by Australia and New Zealand at 27%, and Asia at 19%.
Flights from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport to Singapore saw
the highest increase of 37%, Mumbai to London and Shanghai Pudong
International Airport to Singapore saw an increase of 20%.
High room demand in Asia
Tokyo remained the most expensive city to stay in Asia with average
rates of US$286 per night followed by Singapore at US$260 per night.
Hong Kong is now the third most expensive hotel room night in Asia,
overtaking Seoul due to China’s border re-opening.
Hotel room rates in China saw the highest increase with Beijing up by
12%, to US$175 per night as compared to Q1 2023. Hong Kong saw an
increase of 10% to US$246 and Shanghai saw an increase of 5% to US$140
per night.
Within India, Bangalore remains the most expensive averaging at US$146, Delhi US$120, and Chennai US$101 per night.
In Asia, India had the highest occupancy with Mumbai reaching 101%,
New Delhi at 97%, followed by China with Shanghai at 95%, and Beijing at
93%.
The FCM Consulting quarterly report uses global data from FCM and
Flight Centre Travel Group corporate booking data, for travel from April
to June 2023 (Q2-2023). The report uses Cirium aviation schedule data
as of 8 August 2023. Airfare pricing variations exclude all taxes. The
hotel average room rate (ARR) quoted is the average booked rate using
FCM and Flight Centre Travel Group corporate booking data. Variations in
rates booked reflect seasonality, supply and demand, booking lead times
and variations in exchange rates.