The problem with that is that the pool of flyers concerned is diminishing rather than growing: businesses exercise much tighter control than before on travel budget and I don't think that anybody is expecting a return to the pre-Covid era in terms of business travel, in Europe at any rate. The growth area for premium classes seemed to be premium leisure travelers, but that population is much more price-sensitive than full-fare, last minute business class flyers.

The more convincing argument is increasing monetisation of loyalty partnerships with other goods or services providers. The big one here is credit card companies. |That works well in the North American eco-system. In the world of capped interchange fees in Europe, however, there is much less room for that. There is room for expanding other loyalty partnerships but it is unclear the extent of the potential here, hence why the BAEC change looks like an unproven bet at this stage,