PRIORITY Pass, the world’s largest independent airport lounge access programme, is working with third parties including airlines and hotel groups to increase its membership among business travellers.
The company was launched in 1991 by the International Air Transport Association to give regular travellers who are not part of frequent-flyer programmes access to lounges at airports.
It now has 45,000 members around the world, 25,000 of them in the UK, and is run as a company in its own right.
Priority Pass managing director StevePinches wants to increase the number of members to 75,000 across the world by the end of the year, with 30,000 of them in the UK.
He said:”We are currently talking to third parties who have their own databases of the type of clients that we are targeting about doing joint deals. A lot of hotel groups are giving added benefits to their regular customers. They could buy Priority Pass for their top-level customers to use, or alternatively we could do a special offer in conjunction with third parties.”
Most of the lounges used by Priority Pass are run by independent airlines at airports, although the company has an agreement with Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines and TWAin the US.
Pinches said:”A lot of people are downgrading the class of travel from business to economy. One of the things that they miss is the lounge access. “If a passenger has 15 minutes to wait, it probably doesn’t make a big difference if you use a lounge or not but if there is a delay, it is good to have somewhere to go to wait and relax.”
Priority Pass has 300 airport lounges around the world and plans to add more by the end of the year.
Pinches added:”We want to have a lounge in each terminal at every major airport.”