"We are seeing a very significant shift in business passengers towards our Premium Economy class due to the restrictions imposed by Scandinavian companies on their travel policies", explains Håkan Ollson, South East Asia Director at SAS Scandinavian Airlines. The same is true of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, which says that this is currently its best-performing cabin product. Last year, Japan Airlines extended its Economy Premium product to Paris-Nagoya, London-Osaka, Amsterdam and Moscow.
After ANA, Eva Air, Japan Airlines, Qantas, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines, Europe is now following the trend. Openskies, the British Airways subsidiary, has a Business and Economy Premium class. For the moment, Lufthansa is the only airline to resist the temptation. "I'm not enthusiastic about the idea of installing a premium economy class on our aircraft. Because it carries the risk of turning economy class into an underclass," says Thierry Antinori, Vice President Marketing and Sales at Lufthansa.
