Of the 2 million people clogging airport security lines and gate areas again each day, one crowd is still largely missing: business travelers.
Their absence is noteworthy because they are a key source of revenue and profit, underpinning a record-breaking stretch of financial gain for
Business travelers tend to pay higher fares, and that is especially true on international flights, which are also still deeply depressed by the pandemic and travel restrictions around the globe. Because their fares subsidize other passengers, their absence is leading to higher leisure fares on many routes, experts say.
Business travelers also spend money on hotels, meals and other things.
During calls with
Airlines have been hoping for a major boost in business travel in September, as schools and more offices reopen. Now, however, that optimism is being tempered by the rise in COVID-19 cases around the country fueled the
“We are encouraged by the trends that we see out there, but we really are planning that a material amount of business travel won’t come back until after the October period,”
Airline executives are counting on people like Vazar Lukovic, who owns a digital marketing agency and a production company near
“You know, Zoom meetings, they can only go so far,” Lukovic said. “When you meet in person — whether it’s that energy or what they say about the feeling or the vibe — it’s just so much more personal.”
Unable to travel last year, many companies relied instead on video platforms, including Zoom. Opinions vary about how quickly corporate travel will recover, and whether some of it will be permanently replaced by videoconferencing.
“I do think that maybe 10% to 20% of the previous business travel will be lost, but I think you're going to find new forms of travel,” Bastian said in an interview. “There will be new reasons why people travel.”
Bastian says some things, like overnight trips to business meetings in
Aside from their own surveys, which airlines are often unwilling to disclose, there are few precise numbers about business travel. The industry trade group Airlines for America estimates that before the pandemic about 30% of trips were taken for business reasons, and that those travelers accounted for between 40% and 50% of airline revenue.
Some experts thinks business trips might be fewer and more carefully selected.
“Things have changed," says
In a survey conducted this month for the
A separate survey by
Daniel believes that the pandemic will lead to different kinds of travel, but not necessarily less: fewer conferences, more chances for far-flung employees to get together on projects.
“We realized how much we value in-person meetings -- that collaborative dynamic when people are with each other -- but we don’t want people to travel for things that could or should be handled virtually,” Daniel says. “We have learned how to take care of non-essential meetings in probably a better way for the environment and a better way for the budget.”
Swift booked a flight to
She has nine more business trips scheduled between September and early November. Will she be on board, or will she cancel?
“We’ll see how it goes.”
Urooba Jamal in
David Koenig can be reached at www.twitter.com/airlinewriter
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