Green shoots within travel industry as frequent flyers plan to travel more

A major worldwide survey reveals some early signs of hope for airlines that have been battling declining traffic over the last year.

The survey reveals that travellers are planning to make more trips over the next year, dispelling a little of the doom and gloom that has settled over the industry since the global financial crisis.

Priority Pass, the world’s leading independent airport lounge programme, carried out the survey among its members and over 14,500 responses were received, representing 160 countries.

The respondents, who, between them, reported taking 250,000 flights in the last 12 months, admitted cutting back on business travel over the last 12 months. But things appear to be very different looking forward.

Only 10% anticipated reducing the number of trips they make over the next year, with 42% saying they expect to make more.

On a worldwide basis, expectations are strongest in Australia (where 51% expect to make more trips in the next year), Hong Kong (48%) and Mexico (46%).

Lower expectations are seen in Europe, although the data is still promising, with 36% of UK travellers anticipating more travel, along with 35% in Germany and 32% in Denmark.

Commenting on the results, Jonathan French, Head of Brand for Priority Pass said, “The travellers who took part in this survey are very frequent flyers, taking an average of 17 flights a year each. These results may well be a glimmer of hope for the airline industry that the worst of the downturn may now be over and we are getting back to normal travel patterns.”

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