Airlines recorded the increase in demand for flights by business class
Russian airlines record the increase in demand for flights by a business class, Kommersant found out. More often, such tickets are chosen by premium tourists and corporate clients: oil workers, fuel and energy complex employees and banks, lawyers and financiers. Aggregators note the growth of direct flights by business class to China and transit-in the USA and Hong Kong. The share of the business segment has been declining for the past ten years and now, according to experts, is less than 3% of the total passenger flow.
The Airlines interviewed by Kommersant and Ticket aggregators recorded the growth of flights by business class according to the results of the first quarter of 2025 in annual terms. At the same time, Aeroflot has the share of business class tickets in the total sales remains at the level of 2024-within 3%. But the total number of business class passengers increased due to an increase in the resource of the seats. In the first quarter of 2025, an increase in the seal offer in the business class amounted to 2% on internal routes and 6% on foreign routes, Aeroflot said. Loading the cabin seats in foreign directions, added there, exceeds the indicator on flights in the Russian Federation by 2-3%.
Without revealing the numbers, the growth of demand for business trips was also reported to S7, where they predict the growth of flights by business class in 2025 in both internal and foreign directions. At the same time, on international lines, the carrier is more in demand and is more often purchased by private travelers. In October 2024, the company conducted a rebuke of trunk aircraft, adding business class chairs to where it had previously been an exclusively economy segment.
In the Ural Airlines, the share of sales for the first quarter increased by 0.1% year by the year (up to 0.37% of the total), most of them are on internal lines. More often tickets are purchased in private, the company said, but « many organizations are not corporate clients, but tickets are bought for working purposes. » They reported that the cost of tickets in the business class increased by 17%, due to an increase in expenses. The average cost of a business class flight with Aeroflot increased by 1% on flights in the Russian Federation and by 2.5% to other countries.
All airlines surveyed by Kommersant note an increase in the average depth of reservation in the business class.
In Ural Airlines, it is growing to festive dates and only on flights to Dubai and Istanbul. The S7 generally talk about an increase in the depth of reservation for all segments. In Aeroflot, the periods of reservation have increased: on internal air lines – by 12%, on international – by 20%.
Azur Air celebrates a stable demand for flights in a business class and in tourist destinations. They reported that the first among Russian airlines introduced a separate liner in the business company-Lujo Black Jet for 72 chairs. In winter, the airliner flies to the Maldives, in the summer – in vigor, the employment of the seats reaches almost 90%.
According to the business tourism company, Aeroklub (evaluate their base at 2 thousand corporate clients), the demand for a business class increased by 12% compared to the first quarter of 2024. In the total volume of all corporate transportation, its share reached 4% against traditional 3%. The main fraction of air tickets was issued for Aeroflot flights – 84%of all corporate flights, the share of S7 – 12%, UTAIR – 2%. The largest sales fell on the oil and gas and energy industries – a third of all reservations. Financial, credit and insurance organizations booked 10% of air tickets. Also among industries with the largest share of business class are mining, consulting, legal and financial companies. The company confirms the displacement in the direction of early reservation, which is explained by the desire of customers to save on a business trip. In the first quarter of 2025, 40% of air tickets were purchased in two weeks or more before the departure date. A year ago, they accounted for 35%, and in 2019 – only 29%.
The average cost of a business class ticket was 71.5 thousand rubles. For one -way flight, which, according to the “aero club”, is 4% lower than a year earlier, and 29% higher than the “dopandemic” level.
Air Siles recorded an increase in book class reservations by 29% by the results of 2024. In the TOP-5 of foreign areas of the service, China (18% of the total volume of business class tickets), Turkey and the UAE (10%), as well as Uzbekistan and Thailand (6% and 4%, respectively). The average check of the one-year flight by the year increased by 2.5%. The top directions, which includes transit flights, also included Singapore (7%of the number of reservations in all classes), Hong Kong (4.6%), the Maldives (4%) and the USA (3.2%).
According to Onetwotrip for 2024, the share of flights by the business class in the Russian Federation amounted to 1.3% (in 2023-0.7%), and 3.7% (it was 2.9% abroad). The average cost of a one-way ticket to the business class to Moscow is 48 thousand rubles, as in 2023, in St. Petersburg-42 thousand rubles. (growth of 5%), and in Sochi – 50 thousand rubles. (unchanged). The flight to Yerevan in 2024 cost about 68 thousand rubles. (minus 10% relative to 2023), in Baku-70 thousand rubles, and in Istanbul-115 thousand rubles. (unchanged).
Since 2019, the share of business class in the domestic market has not changed, having played a pandemic fall, but on international ones it has been significantly reduced, says Andrei Kramarenko, a senior researcher at the Higher School of Transport Institute of Transport.
In aggregate in the market, the share of business class today is less than 3% of the total number of passengers (111.7 million according to the results of 2024), the expert believes.
In the 2010s, the general passenger flow quickly grew up, he explains, at the expense of tourist transportation in economy class, while the corporate segment is the main “customer supplier” in the business class-if it has not stamped, “grew much less amazing pace”. “In the late 2010s, it was possible to sell 15% of the business class only on premium business, tourist or shopping European directions: in Paris, Milan, Munich or Nice,” he says.
After the pandemic, the demand for a business class has shifted from international to the internal directions « as a result of compression of foreign trade contacts and after a partial reorientation of premium tourism to the domestic market. » In addition, if carriers with a relatively modestly modest Eurobainer played before the pandemic against Russian companies, now there are many premium carriers with a strong product in affordable foreign directions, including Emirates, Qatar, Etihad, Turkish Airlines and Air Astana.
The share of the Russian business class as a whole is comparable to the European air transportation market. There, the market transformation in the direction of the “categorical” predominance of the economy class occurred 10-15 years earlier than in Russia, where the transition process began in the 2010s, the expert concludes.
