U.S. airlines are inviting corporate travel managers to tour their health and safety protocols in a bid to bring back business travel.
As the aviation industry struggles financially, the return of business and international travel – many times intertwined – will be the key to a return to normalcy.
Overall, air travel is down 60 percent. Now, as CNBC reports, business travel is off 85 percent compared to this time last year so airlines are wooing the corporate travel manager in a bid to convince them it is safe to put their employees back on an airplane.
CNBC noted that Delta Air Lines is in the process of giving 450 tours to more than 800 corporate clients.
“We’ve actually found these airport tours are a great way to showcase what we’re doing, and bring people out here to see it first-hand,” Delta’s Charlie Schewe told the network. “That really builds that confidence and shows them that there’s actually a lot of things being done versus seeing an info-graphic or seeing it in writing.”
Delta is taking a page right out of the American Airlines playbook with the Boeing 737 MAX now that the troubled aircraft has been re-certified to fly by the Federal Aviation Administration.
There is still much trepidation on the part of the flying public about whether passengers want to board the plane, to the point where American Airlines last month began giving tours and taking questions about the efficacy of the new 737 MAX.
