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Bolstered by a dramatic return to pre-pandemic levels of travelers, airlines are now turning their attention to a return to business travel.
According to an article on the ABC News website, carriers are hoping to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2019 — all of which when COVID-19 hit and suddenly business was living in the world of zoom meetings.
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“The whole challenge of the industry is around the return of the corporate traveler, and whether it will come back in volume and frequency to help these airlines,” said John Grant, analyst with travel data provider OAG. He told ABC.
Now trending
But as the ABC notes, while business travel is recovering, it’s still being dampened in part by inflation. Business travel is still down 25 to 30 percent from pre-pandemic levels. That doesn’t seem like much when you consider where it’s been since the start of 2020, but by comparison the leisure travel market has rebounded quickly. Let’s just say that fighters like George Clooney’s character from the movie ‘Up In The Air’, who got 10 million miles in the air from a business trip, won’t be seen again anytime soon.
In fact, the Global Business Travel Association revised its previous forecast that business travel would return by the end of 2024 and now predicts that it will return to normal in mid-2026.
“On the corporate side, it’s going to take a little bit more time to start that again,” Chuck Thaxton, who heads corporate data research at Airline Report, told ABC. “If you want to visit clients in New York, (also) it’s possible that no one is in the office in New York. That’s slowly building back.”
Still, airlines remain optimistic and big companies hope to start flying again. Southwest Airlines chief commercial officer Andrew Watterson said most business travel is done by small businesses and government agencies.
“Our big companies are lagging, especially banking, consulting and technology,” he said.
Southwest recently introduced a new business travel portal, a sign of optimism.
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