Business travel is dead—or at least, that’s what many assume. With video calls making it easier than ever to connect with colleagues around the world, the thinking holds that there’s a weaker business case to spend thousands on hopping on a jet to mingle.
Besides, with remote and hybrid working still the norm, what's the point of traveling to the London or Paris office if no one's there? Even Microsoft’s Bill Gates predicted that more than 50% of business travel would disappear in the pandemic’s aftermath.
But actually, such fears have been greatly overstated, according to Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta Air Lines, the world's largest airline by revenue.
Although business travel at the airline is “about 20% below” pre-pandemic levels, Bastian isn’t concerned because the likes of work-from-anywhere policies mean that workers are just taking workations instead.
“The thing that people miss is that while people aren't traveling for managed business, they're traveling on the road at a much higher level because mobility has been at a premium because of hybrid opportunities to travel and bring your office with you,” Bastian told CNBC.
“Business is far above anything we ever saw pre-COVID—we're just managing and looking at it differently today.”
Hybrid working has altered business travel
Before the virus, business travelers accounted for half of U.S. airlines’ revenue, but just 30% of the trips, according to Airlines for America, an industry group that represents most U.S. carriers. However, rather than globe-trotting to see colleges, workers today are more likely to be mixing business and pleasure.
Take Thanksgiving weekend, for example. Delta Air Lines hit new travel records over the holiday period as workers could dial into their jobs remotely from home—and Bastian predicts the same happening again over Christmas.
“We saw more travelers during this Thanksgiving break than we've seen in our history—not just Thanksgiving—for any week of holiday peak travel,” he said, adding that the airline broke its Transportation Security Administration’s pre-pandemic performance record.
“For the 10-day period around the holiday we had 50,000 operations, less than 20 cancels, over 90% on-time arrivals and that demand is getting us set for a Christmas break that I think is going to be equally as strong.”
The pandemic hasn’t killed frequent flyer cards—but what about the environment?
Although business travel has somewhat rebounded post-pandemic, that could all change as businesses set their eyes on net zero and try to live up to sustainability promises.
At PwC—where air travel is the single biggest source of carbon emissions—flying business class has just been banned. Senior staff at the U.K. arm of the Big Four accountancy firm were reportedly told that outside of “business critical” cases, those traveling on any work trips by plane should opt for economy flights.
The new guidance comes just a year after the company pledged to “reduce unnecessary journeys”, with PwC stressing that the measures are part of an effort to reach net zero by 2030—rather than a cost-cutting move.
“Flights account for the majority of our carbon emissions so we’re only going to meet our net zero target if our people take a really thoughtful approach to air travel,” Marissa Thomas, managing partner at PwC UK told the Financial Times.
“Given a business-class seat is roughly 50 per cent more carbon-intensive than one in premium economy, we’re asking partners and directors to think carefully about if they need one.”
