Corporate travel recovery keeps getting pushed back

The reasons are varied, but stacked together they form a wall of obstacles airlines and hotels haven’t been able to scale

Since the end of the coronavirus pandemic, the region’s biggest airline groups have been counting on corporate warriors to head back to the skies. But so far, many business clients have sat out the travel rebound.

Key takeaways

• Although most airlines didn’t expect business travel to fully recover post-pandemic, they predicted it would bounce back to as much as 85%. Instead, corporate traffic is at around 60% in Germany, 70% in Japan and 80% at most in the US. This is partly because of a remote work culture, as well as carbon consciousness and more awareness for employee wellness;
• In Germany, smaller companies that make up the heart of the manufacturing base are back on the road but major players have pulled back in ways that appear to be structural;
• During the crisis, large corporations gutted travel budgets to survive, and found out that the ease and efficiency of conferencing software made some trips unnecessary. Now, facing cost inflation and pressure to cut greenhouse gas emissions, they see no need to change course.

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