Name: 飛一次要台幣六位數！航空公司為何將數十億美元押注在更多頭等艙班機上？(Why Airlines Are Betting Billions on More First-Class Flights | WSJ Booked)
Uploaded: 2025-05-16T21:01:50.000Z
Duration: 6 min 57 s

This cabin costs at least $11,000 for a round-trip flight from New York to Paris.

從紐約到巴黎的往返機票至少需要 11,000 美元。

基礎被動語態

These first-class seats were renovated as part of a $550 million investment to upgrade Air France's existing planes and loungers.

這些頭等艙座椅的翻新是法航投資 5.5 億美元升級現有飛機和休息室的一部分。

They're part of a massive race by airlines across the world to build the most exclusive and high-end cabins for passengers willing to pay top dollar.

全世界的航空公司都在競相為願意支付高價的乘客建造最獨特、最高級，上等的客艙。

What's been this kind of incredible tailwind for the aviation industry is the amount of money that regular leisure passengers are willing to spend on their products.

對航空業來說，這種令人難以置信的順風是普通休閒乘客願意在其產品上花費的金額。

Especially because business travel has not returned to pre-COVID levels, airlines are trying to make up for the gap by winning over wealthy vacationers.

特別是由於商務旅行尚未恢復到 COVID 之前的水準，航空公司正試圖通過爭取富裕的度假者來彌補這一差距。

But competing for this business comes with some big risks.

但是，爭奪這項業務也有很大的風險。

Chasing rich customers means sacrificing space that could be filled by many more economy passengers.

追逐富裕乘客意味著犧牲空間，而這些空間本可以為更多的經濟艙乘客提供。

And since the wait lists for new planes and components stretch years, airlines have to commit to a seat layout far in advance, and invest hundreds of millions of dollars all at a time of increasing economic uncertainty.

由於新飛機和新部件的等待時間長達數年，航空公司不得不提前很長時間對座位佈局做出承諾，並在經濟不確定性日益增加的情況下投資數億美元。

The prevailing wisdom is that economy seats are there to subsidize the cost of flying.

人們普遍認為，經濟艙座位是用來補貼飛行成本的。

Premier seats and premium seats are there to actually make money.

貴賓席和特等席是用來真正賺錢的。

First-class cabins are important for maintaining a small number of top-tier customers, offering an upgrade option to business-class travelers who might be willing to splurge and trying to find new customers among the increasing number of people who fly private.

頭等艙對於維護少數頂級客戶、為願意花錢的商務艙旅客提供升級選擇以及在越來越多的私人飛機乘客中尋找新客戶都很重要。

Premium seats are significantly more profitable per square foot than economy seats, according to past airline reports, and carriers can charge significantly more for business and first-class seats.

根據航空公司過去的報告，高級座位每平方英尺的利潤明顯高於經濟艙座位，航空公司可以對商務艙和頭等艙座位收取更高的費用。

Many airlines would prefer to replace economy seats with higher-class seating.

許多航空公司希望用更高級別的座位取代經濟艙座位。

The question is how much can they upsell people, and how much to deprioritize the economy section to make room for those larger seats.

問題是，他們能向乘客兜售多少錢，又能在多大程度上降低經濟艙的優先級，以便為這些大座位騰出空間。

Air France is billing its new 38-square-foot La Premier cabins with five windows each as the longest first-class on the market, though some competitors offer more space overall.

法航將其新推出的 38 平方英尺的 La Premier 客艙（每個客艙有五個窗戶）標榜為市場上最長的頭等艙，儘管一些競爭對手提供的總體空間更大。

Some Emirates first-class cabins are 40 square feet, which is smaller than many Singapore Airlines cabins which are 50 square feet.

阿聯酋航空的部分頭等艙面積為 40 平方英尺，比新加坡航空的許多頭等艙都要小，後者的頭等艙面積為 50 平方英尺。

Let alone Etihad's 125-square-foot residence.

更不用說阿提哈德公司 125 平方英尺的住所了。

We have people that are flying because they don't like the optics of a private jet, and then we have some people now that like the product so much that,

有些人坐飛機是因為他們不喜歡私人飛機的視覺效果，而有些人則非常喜歡這種產品，

you know, they actually buy four seats just for one person because they want to have that full privacy, and they find it better than actually taking a private jet.

甚至會為一個人購買四個座位，因為他們希望擁有充分的隱私，而且他們覺得這比乘坐私人飛機更好。

Airlines just have to figure out how many customers actually exist for these seats.

航空公司只需弄清楚這些座位究竟有多少客戶。

Economy passengers can often go round-trip from New York to Paris for less than $1,000.

經濟艙乘客從紐約到巴黎的往返票價通常不到 1,000 美元。

It's one thing to upsell them to premium for a $2,000 round-trip, but another to get them to pay at least $11,000, often much more, for a trip that's only seven and a half hours each way.

向他們兜售往返 2000 美元的高級機票是一回事，但讓他們為單程僅七個半小時的旅行支付至少 11000 美元，甚至更高的費用，則是另一回事。

While some airlines like Emirates have built their reputations around first-class travel and carry thousands of first-class passengers a day, other traditional airlines can't count on that level of high spending traffic.

阿聯酋航空等一些航空公司圍繞頭等艙旅行建立了自己的聲譽，每天運送數千名頭等艙乘客，但其他傳統航空公司卻無法指望這種高消費客流。

So many airlines only put first-class cabins on specific routes.

許多航空公司只在特定航線上設置頭等艙。

For instance, on Air France flights to the Caribbean, it uses a layout like this, which has 472 seats.

例如，在法航飛往加勒比海的班機上，就採用了這樣的佈局，共有 472 個座位。

For the same planes that go between New York and Paris, it often chooses this layout with only 312 seats, 160 less to make room for more premium cabins.

在往返於紐約和巴黎之間的同一架飛機上，該公司往往選擇這種佈局，只有 312 個座位，少了 160 個座位是為了給更多的高級客艙騰出空間。

For some traditional airlines, the changes are a correction to years of trying to compete with budget carriers like Spirit and EasyJet.

對於一些傳統航空公司來說，這些變化是對多年來試圖與 Spirit 和 EasyJet 等廉價航空公司競爭的一種修正。

The global aviation industry has about $900 billion in annual expenses, largely fuel, labor, equipment, and various overhead costs.

全球航空業的年支出約為 9000 億美元，主要是燃料、勞動力、設備和各種管理費用。

Most of these are borne by traditional airlines that have larger staffs and more complex logistics.

其中大部分是由員工人數較多、物流較複雜的傳統航空公司承擔的。

Meanwhile, the industry saw net profits last year of just about $32 billion, or about $7 per passenger.

與此同時，該行業去年的淨利潤僅為 320 億美元左右，即每位乘客約 7 美元。

To stay in the black, full-service carriers have had to trim amenities and streamline operations.

為了保持盈利，提供全面服務的航空公司不得不削減設施，精簡營運。

現在，有些人正在試圖改變策略。

To cut their economy sections and focus on passengers willing to pay more.

削減經濟艙，將重點放在願意支付更多費用的乘客身上。

For Air France, that meant flying smaller planes that it didn't have to fill with so many passengers, which also meant it could fly more people directly to their final destinations rather than make everyone connect through Paris.

對法國航空公司來說，這意味著它可以駕駛較小的飛機，不必裝載那麼多乘客，這也意味著它可以讓更多的人直飛最終目的地，而不是讓每個人都在巴黎轉機。

We have gradually been reducing the average size of our long-haul fleet, not necessarily to make up for bigger premium cabins, but to lower the dependency on connecting and lower price travel.

我們一直在逐步縮小長途機隊的平均規模，這不一定是為了彌補更大的高級客艙，而是為了降低對轉機和低價旅行的依賴。

But it's unclear if the strategy to go premium will pay off in the long run.

但是，從長遠來看，溢價戰略能否奏效還不得而知。

Air France is spending about $1.1 billion per year to renew its fleet, and the new planes it's buying, like the Airbus A350, have list prices of more than $300 million each.

法航每年花費約 11 億美元更新其機隊，其購買的新飛機（如空客 A350）每架的掛牌價超過 3 億美元。

Airlines are ordering more caviar and champagne, hiring Michelin chefs to design their menus, and teaming up with luxury designers to make custom in-flight pajamas.

航空公司正在訂購更多的魚子醬和香檳，聘請米其林大廚設計菜單，並與奢侈品設計師合作定製機上睡衣。

The renovations are also taking a long time to execute, which means companies are betting large sums and spending years pursuing strategies that could backfire.

翻新工程的實施也需要很長的時間，這就意味著企業需要投入鉅額資金，花費數年時間來實施可能適得其反的戰略。

So we made the strategic decision to invest in a new La Premiere six years ago.

我們在六年前做出了投資新建 La Premiere 的戰略決策。

Then it was designing the seat, finding the suppliers, developing the seat, and then it was certifying.

然後是設計座椅、尋找供應商、開發座椅，最後是認證。

So certifying took a long time because it's not just certifying the whole seat.

認證需要很長時間，因為這不僅僅是認證整個座位。

There's fire testing, there's making sure it's not too heavy, not too light, durability testing.

有防火測試，有確保不會太重或太輕的測試，還有耐久性測試。

So that part took about three, three and a half years.

這部分花了大約三年或三年半的時間。

This means that companies have to set priorities far in advance and then hope they've correctly predicted where the market is headed.

這意味著企業必須提前確定優先事項，然後希望自己能正確預測市場的走向。

You've got a bunch of airlines all coming out of the pandemic, all wanting to invest in brand new seats to differentiate their offerings.

許多航空公司都從大流行病中走了出來，都想投資全新的座椅，使自己的產品與眾不同。

And that's part of what we're seeing in terms of the delays, is it just takes a lot of time to get through the bureaucracy, essentially, of getting these seats ready and fitted and safety approved.

這也是我們所看到的延誤的部分原因，因為從本質上講，通過官僚機構來完成這些座椅的準備、安裝和安全認證需要大量的時間。

But for some companies, there are few alternatives, and the risk is worth the investment.

但對某些公司來說，幾乎沒有其他選擇，而且這種風險值得投資。

And based on Air France's current data, high-revenue air travelers aren't downgrading anytime soon.

根據法航目前的數據，高收入航空旅客不會在短期內降級。

Travel is one of the first things to be affected when prices go up, or there's uncertainty, or there's instability in parts of the world.

當物價上漲、不確定性或世界部分地區出現不穩定局勢時，旅行是最先受到影響的事情之一。

What we're seeing, though, is luxury travel seems to be very resilient.

不過，我們看到的是，豪華旅遊似乎具有很強的生命力。

We don't see this as, OK, we're going to re-evaluate this every few years.

我們不認為這是 "好的，我們將每隔幾年重新評估一次"。

This is a product we believe will stay part of our offering, you know, for the long term.

我們相信，該產品將長期成為我們產品的一部分。

It's a really interesting time because we're starting to see cracks in the global economy.

這是一個非常有趣的時期，因為我們開始看到全球經濟出現裂痕。

And it's not quite clear whether this hyper-expensive luxury travel that they're kind of betting on is really going to last. you

現在還不太清楚，他們押注的這種超昂貴的奢華旅行是否真的會持續下去。

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飛一次要台幣六位數！航空公司為何將數十億美元押注在更多頭等艙班機上？(Why Airlines Are Betting Billions on More First-Class Flights | WSJ Booked)

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