Budget Airlines Woo Globe-Trotting Business Passengers Budget airlines that helped make European vacations supercheap are setting their sights on business travelers.Cheap Flights from Shanghai to IbarakiPremium passengers for years have helped drive profits for long-haul airlines such as American Airlines Group Inc. AAL 2.03% and British Airways . Budget airlines that have proliferated on trans-Atlantic routes want to tap those higher margins, too. For now, bigger airlines and budget newcomers say demand for premium-class travel is robust enough to drive traffic to carriers in both categories. Business travel has picked up along with the economies on both sides of the Atlantic. Canada’s budget carrier, WestJet Airlines Ltd. WJAFF 3.43% , has placed 24 "premium-plus” seats on its long-haul Boeing 767s. Primera Air, a Scandinavian budget airline, plans to put 16 premium seats on flights between London and New York. Iceland’s Wow air plans to put 42 premium seats on its Airbus SE A330neo long-haul planes due for delivery this year. Norwegian Air Shuttle AS A is adding 60% more "premium” seats to its Boeing Co. BA -0.94% 787 Dreamliners, bringing capacity to 56 on each flight. "We did not anticipate we would have that high demand on the premium seats,” said Norwegian Chief Executive Bjorn Kjos. Bigger airlines are reporting strong returns from trans-Atlantic business travel, even as budget carriers add flights on the routes. United Continental Holdings Inc. said trans-Atlantic flights delivered the highest year-on-year growth in passenger sales of any market in the first three months of the year. Delta Air Lines Inc. Chief Executive Ed Bastian said last week that first-quarter revenue on the routes rose 15% compared to the year prior, showing that budget rivals weren’t hurting returns. "Our trans-Atlantic business is up,” he said.

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