The suits are flying again at Philadelphia International Airport, and they want the expensive seats.
Corporate travel has roared back at PHL, with business class seating climbing well above pre-pandemic levels, write Ethan Nelson and Emma Dooling for the Philadelphia Business Journal.
From May 1 through Aug. 31, airlines have completed or scheduled 469,978 business class seats at PHL.
That’s up 18 percent from the same stretch in 2019 and 7 percent from summer 2025.
The surge is nationwide.
Domestic carriers have roughly 27.6 million business class seats scheduled through the end of August, about 7 million more than before the pandemic.
Business class now makes up about 7.5 percent of all domestic seats during the May-to-August window, up from just under 6 percent in 2019, according to Cirium data cited by the Business Journal.
What makes the jump striking is that airlines are flying 3 percent fewer flights than they did in 2019.
Carriers appear to be squeezing more revenue out of each plane by adding and selling more premium seats.
At PHL, American Airlines‘ Philadelphia-to-Dallas Fort Worth route leads the pack with 22,578 business class seats this summer, up 28 percent from 2019.
The price gap is steep.
Premium seating on that route can run nearly double the main cabin fare. A PHL-to-DFW flight on July 12 at 3 PM lists main cabin seats at $627 and premium seats at $1,196.
Other business-heavy routes out of Philadelphia include flights to Atlanta, Miami, Chicago-O’Hare, and Los Angeles.
The local boom mirrors a national push by American, United, Delta, and others to chase higher-spending travelers.
The Philadelphia Business Journal has the full breakdown of routes, fares, and the airlines driving the premium surge.
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