Airline business trips could drop 36% as corporate travelers embrace technology
Analysis reveals a potential overall loss of airline business trips ranging from a low of 19% to a high of 36%.
Travel for “sales activity and securing clients” is the largest category of business air travel (25% of the total); it’s projected to show a modest loss ranging from zero up to 20%. Intra-company meetings comprise 20% of all business air trips, and are projected to decrease up to 60%. Business travel booked by US corporate travel agents had a 95% year-over-year plunge in transaction value at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020; this slightly improved to an 85% drop by November 2020.
Airlines can recover the revenue loss by: - Enhancing leisure travel retail efforts; - Boosting ancillary revenue; - Reducing lie-flat seat capacity; and - Adding premium economy seating
