During the global recession, there was a trend which saw various Northern Hemisphere carriers, who flew into New Zealand, reducing the supply of number of first-class seats. Brent Thomas, who is working as the spokesman of House of Travel, said that on short and mid-range flights to some destinations like Asia, the number of business and first class travelers reduced drastically during the start of the financial crisis in 2008.

He further said that since the start of the current year, the companies have again started looking for the overseas clients. So they are getting more bookings for the business and first class seats.

Earlier this year, Air New Zealand gave a statement that they are expecting big growth in the bookings for the Premium economy seats. In 2004, the airline has scrapped the first class seats. They replaced those seats with Premium Economy and Business Premier.

In January this year, the airline said in a statement that they are selling the additional space and services of Premium economy in long flights but it is not at the expense of Business Premier class, which has the longest bed in any aircraft.