International airlines have rediscovered the business travelers the man or woman who regu

International airlines have rediscovered the business travelers, the man or woman who regularly jets from country to country as part of the job. This does not necessarily mean that airlines ever abandoned their business travelers. Indeed, companies like Lufthansa and Swissair would rightly argue that they have always catered best for the executive class passengers. But many lines could be accused of concentrating too heavily in the recent past on attracting passengers by volume, often at the expense of regular travelers. Too often, they have seemed geared for quantity rather than quality.

Operating a major airline in the 1980s is essentially a matter of finding the right mix of passengers. The airlines need to fill up the back end of their wide-bodied jets with low fare passengers, without forgetting that the front end should be filled with people who pay substantially more for their tickets.

It is no coincidence that the two major airline bankruptcies in 1982 were among the companies specializing in cheap flights. But low fares require consistently full aircraft to make flights economically viable, and in the recent recession the volume of traffic has not grown. Equally the large number of airlines jostling for the available passengers has created a huge excess of capacity. The net result of excess capacity and cut-throat competition driving down fare"s has been to push some airlines into collapse and leave many others hovering on the brink.

Against this grim background, it is no surprise that airlines are turning increasingly towards the business travelers to improve their rates of return. They have invested much time and effort to establish exactly what the executive demands for sitting apart from the tourists.

High on the list of priorities is punctuality; an executive"s time is money. In-flight service is another area where the airlines are jostling for the executive"s attention. The free drinks and headsets and better food are all part of the lure.

One criticism against many international airlines is that they have, in the recent past, ______.

A．catered for the more wealthy people

B．given preferential treatment to executive clients

C．only met the needs of the regular travelers

D．marketed their service with the masses in mind