The low cost companies start to operate in the business segment

The low cost companies are gaining ground in the traditional airlines business. This is the main conclusion of the study elaborated by the Iberian Business Travel Association (IBTA), the Spanish association for travel managers. The industry bills about 80 million Euros in business travelling annually.

The majority of the IBTA partners (72.2%) consider that value for money with low cost companies is “good” and 18.8% qualifies it as “excellent”. Only 9% thinks that “it is not worthy”. On the other hand, Vueling is viewed to provide the best value by 81.8% of the polled.

The Spanish companies value the advantages of flying in Business Class: the space and the comfort (58.3%), and the special treatment in the airport (25%). The airport in Madrid is well considered by 58.3% of the travel managers; while 41.6% thinks that The Prat offers a better attention to Business Class travellers. In the international area, Charles de Gaulle in Paris, is the airport that has the most prestige (42.8%), followed by London and Tokyo (21.42%, respectively).

In general, and in spite of investing in development, the travel managers do not have an absolutely positive perception of the low cost companies (only 27.7% considers “good service”), and espcially when travel managers were asked about the attention received in Business Class. The 66.6% of the IBTA members give a 4 out of 5 points on the service received from their favourite airline.

And Iberia is, with 30.7% of the voting, the company with the best Business Class service. Lufthansa and British Airways follow both by 23% of the votes, respectively. On the other extreme, is Air Europa with 44.4% of those polled considers its Business Class service as the least valued.