Corporate travel ascends into higher pricing

Singapore – As airfares in Asia Pacific go up, companies are struggling to keep control of rising travel costs. But there is a bright side to this, as it enables companies to regain control of the travel purse strings.

According to the American Express Asia Pacific Business Travel Monitor, airfares were up by 3% overall quarter over quarter and 9% year over year. Fuelling this increase in airfares is the 5% rise of flights originating in Asia Pacific going to Intra Asia Pacific destinations quarter over quarter. Both full business class and full economy class saw increases of 3% quarter over quarter.

In Singapore, last quarter’s decreases has been replaced with fare increases of between 3 – 4% across the board on most fare types.

“Singapore remains an extremely robust market, however if you are flying economy long haul to European destinations and can book early there are some savings to be made with a 10% drop in economy discount fares over the last quarter,” Kurt Knackstedt, head of advisory services for American Express Business Travel, Japan, Asia Pacific and Australia says.

Unfortunately, while the discount economy remains a segment which seems to be benefiting from stiff competition at the low end of the market, business travellers are rarely able to take advantage of these fares unless they book tickets well in advance. This is why alternative cost saving strategies need to be put in place, Knackstedt concludes. One initiative which companies like Intel are looking into, is to move away from the high touch travel servicing environment to an integrated offline and online travel booking environment.