All-premium-class services on medium-haul leisure routes – a viable niche in the air transport sector?

摘要

On medium-haul leisure routes (“MHL-routes”), passengers can usually choose betweendifferent airlines and tour operators, but not between different service levels. For this reason,all tourists have to accept similar, low comfort levels for their holiday flights, while, on theaccommodation side, a wide range of comfort levels is available, from the cheap 1 star hotelto luxurious 5-7 star resorts or own properties. This raises the question if individual comfortrequirements and degrees of willingness to pay also differ with regard to the holiday flight.The objective of this paper is to analyse if there is a market for premium products on MHLrouteswhich is currently not met by appropriate supply. More precisely, we analyse if allpremiumclass services could be viable on MHL-routes. Using a case study approach, weestimate potential costs and demand for hypothetical all-premium class operations fromGermany to the Spanish islands of Majorca, Gran Canaria and Tenerife. It shows that breakevenload factors could be achieved on a couple of routes. In addition, it is argued thatpossible obstacles for all-premium leisure operations would be lower than those for allpremiumservices targeted to business travellers.