Return of corporate travel?

The sixth edition of CAPA Masterclass Series discussed the
challenges that airlines will face to bring back their cash cow – the
corporate travellers.

Peter Harbison Chairman Emeritus CAPA – Centre for Aviation

Just how safe is it for an employer to ask an employee to travel internationally whether by air or any other mode? Moreover, once the bean counters have seen that they don’t have to spend this much money in the short term, you’re going to have to justify why you need to travel starting from zero budget rather than last year’s budget, particularly when budgets are diverted to online. Corporate travel is a critical part of airline business; it’s the honey and the cake for them.

Richard Maslen Analyst & Content Editor The Blue Swan Daily
CAPA – Centre for Aviation
We have global recession now which will affect business travel significantly. And while a lot of routes are being re-introduced, frequencies are not there and that doesn’t work for business travellers. With quarantine rules, it’s harder. A big part of business travel is the conferences and events, and we haven’t seen a lot of that taking place. Corporate travel will be more about ROI, going forward. It’s going to be difficult for airlines to re-assess where demand is. They base everything on data, and historical data is irrelevant now.

Jonathan Wober Chief Financial Analyst CAPA – Centre for Aviation

What airlines are saying about capacity and what eventually happens is not always the same. Capacity may come back, but will demand? Consumer confidence will be driven to some extent by aviation hygiene standards. We’ve seen no significant airlines go out of business so far. But in the recovery phases, it could be a lot more challenging as costs come back into the equation. The extent to which revenue comes back is unknown. If they don’t generate more revenue, their cash will burn.

Inputs by Hazel Jain

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