Traffic counts for business and premium travel continue to plummet as lowering of fares appears to have no appeal to customers that are trading down to economy tickets.

IATA today released its latest premium traffic report showing customers traveling on first and business class tickets in January fell 16.7%, a significant decrease from December’s 13.3% drop year-over-year.

Premium fares also continue fall as the decrease reached 6% in December. IATA explains wide variations exist in those declines by route, with drops of 16% within Europe and 11% across the North Atlantic. There were some increases in average fares across the Pacific. IATA’s figures exclude fuel surcharges not included in underlying fares. Taking that into account the association estimates industry revenues in January from premium passengers were down by at least a quarter.

Some IATA statistics suggest that passengers are trading down to coach class seats, particularly in Europe.

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