European corporates increase spending on flights

European companies are “willing to accept” higher travel prices with more business travelers now flying in business class cabins

AirPlus found that European companies booked 19 per cent more flights in 2023 than in 2022, with overall spending on air travel reaching 76 per cent of 2019 levels. The country with the highest rate of recovery was Switzerland where corporates spent 88 per cent of their 2019 budget on flights.

Key takeaways

• Business travellers are now flying in premium cabins more often than they did pre-Covid with 11.1 per cent of bookings through AirPlus being for business class. This was up from 10.7 per cent in 2022 and 8.8 per cent in 2019;
• This rise in demand for business class came despite average ticket prices rising by 7 per cent year-on-year to reach €3,867 in 2023. AirPlus noted that average economy fares remained stable at €515 last year, compared to €510 in 2022;
• The data from AirPlus corresponds with similar findings from Advantage Travel Partnership and Travelogix of “major growth” in bookings for premium air travel during 2023.

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