Lost business class travel is pummeling big airlines. Industry leaders predict when it might return and how it could change.
Summary List Placement After 16 months of pandemic-induced lethargy, air travel has roared back to life this summer but the revival isn''t exactly what the country''s biggest airlines have been hoping to see. Americans seem eager to travel for fun, but not for work: Business travel demand right now is about 40% of what it was in the summer of 2019, United CEO Scott Kirby said in a recent CBS Face The Nation interview . That''s a problem. In normal times, business travelers occupy about 12% to 15% of the seats on the big, conventional airlines that offer multi-class seating, aim at higher fare-paying business travelers, and have higher operating costs than the budget players. But that same group of travelers generates about 45% of conventional carriers'' revenues . So airlines and their travel industry compatriots in the hotel and restaurants segments remain in a deep financial hole. And nobody''s quite sure when, if ever, business travel will fully rebound. Kirby said he doesn''t see a full recovery before next summer.
Lost business class travel is pummeling big airlines. Industry leaders predict when it might return and how it could change.
Summary List Placement After 16 months of pandemic-induced lethargy, air travel has roared back to life this summer but the revival isn''t exactly what the country''s biggest airlines have been hoping to see. Americans seem eager to travel for fun, but not for work: Business travel demand right now is about 40% of what it was in the summer of 2019, United CEO Scott Kirby said in a recent CBS Face The Nation interview . That''s a problem. In normal times, business travelers occupy about 12% to 15% of the seats on the big, conventional airlines that offer multi-class seating, aim at higher fare-paying business travelers, and have higher operating costs than the budget players. But that same group of travelers generates about 45% of conventional carriers'' revenues . So airlines and their travel industry compatriots in the hotel and restaurants segments remain in a deep financial hole. And nobody''s quite sure when, if ever, business travel will fully rebound. Kirby said he doesn''t see a full recovery before next summer.