Demand for premium air cabins for flights within Europe has slowed to a growth of just 0.4 per cent due to "weaknes" in the eurozone countries.
The latest figures from IATA show that global premium air travel only grew by 2.3 per cent in February compared to the same month in 2014 when the market was growing by 4.1 per cent.
Over the same period, economy traffic went up by 4.8 per cent as lower ticket prices attracted more leisure passengers to travel by air.
But growth on some key business travel routes was more robust, such as Europe to the Middle East, which saw a 6.2 per cent increase in premium travel over the same period.
The key transatlantic market, which accounts for 14 per cent of all global premium traffic and 22.6 per cent of airline revenue, was only up by 1.3 per cent year-on-year for premium passengers in February.
IATA noted that more recent data showed there were "signs of a pick-up in business confidence in the eurozone and US" which could "ease some of the downward pressure" on international business travel in the next few months…
