A lot of things changed since the pandemic started. Work-from-home setup is now the norm. And though a lot of Americans have been vaccinated, it seems that many are not prepared to give up remote work even if things go back to normal. The same goes for business travel. Now that Zoom proved to be a more convenient alternative, many experts see it likely that Zoom is here to stay.
Zoom Affecting Business Travel Recovery?
For Stewart Mann, CEO of Wild Rooster Events, “I went from probably 175 to 200 flights in a normal year to two flights last year after the pandemic hit”. For those who are used to all the traveling, it’s not surprising that they miss it. Mann said that “I’m a people person and I was depressed”.
For Jan Freitag, the national director of CoStar Group, “if you traveled a lot in 2018 and 2019—if that was your job—there’s a likelihood that you were missing it”. He added that “I think there’s the sense that Zoom and all these applications worked, but there’s just a lot of personal interactions that’s missing in those virtual meetings”.
Even airlines and travel-related companies don’t expect much from business travel recovery despite the recent uptick in domestic travel demand. International Air Transport Association, an organization that represents 290 airlines, expects the business travel sector to return slower than leisure travel.
Expensive Way to Conduct Business
But just how important is business travel for the travel industry? Though business travel only represents 12% of passengers on a flight, it can generate as much as 75% of an airline’s profit. Before the pandemic, some companies get their airline-appointed flight consultant to give them the best fares for their trips.
Now that we have resources that make it possible to conduct meetings remotely, it is going to be difficult for airlines to revitalize corporate travel. Scott Cohen who is a professor at the University of Surrey in England thinks that “frequent business travel was a burden rather than a perk”. He added that “a weak recovery in business travel would be disastrous for airlines, which have already seen their finances stretched to breaking point by the pandemic”.