International airlines know how you travel; they have increased business class seats on India flights

More and more Indians now prefer travelling business class while going abroad and the international airlines have decided to bank on this trend.

International airlines such Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Jet Airways, etc are increasing more seats in the business class on their India flights.

The business class bookings increased 75% and are proving to be one of the growth drivers in the aviation industry.

Singapore Airlines’ new Airbus A350 aircraft, which will added to Mumbai next year, will have 66 business and premium economy seats compared with 38 business class seats in the current Boeing 777 aircraft.

Meanwhile, British Airways is also planning to introduce first class seats on both its flights from London to Mumbai, whereas, Jet Airways introduced first class and business class on short-haul international routes, which were earlier all-economy flights.

As per a report by MakeMyTrip, business class bookings on foreign carriers increased by 37% to 88% year-on-year every month from January to August. Bookings in August grew by 88% over a year earlier. The portal compiled data on the basis of an average of spot and prior bookings.

"It is the corporate travellers who are driving this demand for more premium seats as there is a renewed confidence in the state of our economy. Airlines have sensed there is an opportunity and have deployed larger aircraft that has more business class and first class seats," John Nair, head of business travel at Cox & Kings, told ET.

Sharat Dhall, president of travel portal Yatra.com, told ET that with a rapidly emerging market for premium business and leisure travel, the competition will shift to the front end of the aircraft, especially for international flights. India's annual international air passenger traffic is about 55 million. About 60 domestic and foreign airlines ferry flyers in and out of the country. Of India's seven major local carriers, four fly international and only two - Jet Airways and Air India - sell business and first-class seats.