American Express Business Travel has published the latest Asia Pacific Business Travel Monitor which shows the airfare trends in the Asia Pacific in the first quarter of this year.

Asia Pacific Business Travel Monitor is published on a quarterly basis and this latest report shows that in the first three months of this year, the overall air fare increase kept unchanged in comparison to that of the previous quarter. But the year-on-year growth remained at a steady rate of 3%. This result was caused by the increasing number of leisure and business travelers and the fierce competition among airline companies who struggle for these travelers.

In China, the public airfare dropped by 1% in the quarter, but it was still an increase of 3% compared with that of the same period of last year. However, driven by airfare on routes to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the airfare of economy class cabins in the first quarter declined by 12%. The average airfare for international routes, except those to the Americas rose by 26%, remained stable.

In Hong Kong, the airfare in the first quarter kept steady, however, compared with last year, the airfare for preferential business class cabins dropped by 25%.

In Taiwan, the airfare in the first three month declined by an average of 2%, which was a decrease of 1% year-on-year. But the airfare for preferential business class cabin increased by 6% compared with last year.