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Pursuits

Fliers Splurge on Most Expensive Seats as Travel Restarts

  • Travelers willing to pay up after being grounded so long: IATA
  • Walsh says China’s Covid approach is ‘clearly disappointing’
A flight attendant arranges a premium class seat of a Singapore Airlines aircraft.

A flight attendant arranges a premium class seat of a Singapore Airlines aircraft.

Photographer: Nicky Loh/Bloomberg

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More people are flying in more expensive cabins for leisure trips despite airfares rising on surging oil prices and demand, and that’s helped offset a slower recovery in business travel, according to the International Air Transport Association. 

“There’s a strong pent-up demand for travel,” IATA Director General Willie Walsh told reporters in Singapore on Monday. “Consumers had disposable income during the two years of the pandemic. People have saved and therefore they are prepared to spend that money.”