The entrance to San Francisco International Airport, 2009.
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For the past couple of years, airlines have been predicting that the business travel market — the bread and butter of their bottom lines — would return to pre-pandemic levels soon enough but weren’t sure just when, even as leisure air travel roared back to record levels this summer. Now, the Global Business Travel Association, a trade group of corporate travel managers, is forecasting in its 2023 Business Travel Index Outlook that company travel — at least in terms of spending — will blow past pre-pandemic levels next year. GBTA predicts worldwide business travel spending will hit $1.4 trillion in 2024 and continue to grow in the following years, reaching $1.8 trillion by 2027.
A stock image showing a business traveler at the airport.
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“In 2022, global business travel spending rose 47% to $1.03 trillion, with strong gains continuing and 32% growth expected in 2023,” GBTA said. “These robust gains were fueled by pent-up demand after the COVID-19 pandemic, more favorable global economic conditions in 2022 and 2023 and recession risks that have yet to happen.” Those spending numbers include all business travel expenses worldwide — not just airfare but also lodging, food and beverage, ground transportation, and other costs. The increased spending might not necessarily correlate with the number of business trips. “Business travel spending is a key indicator, but how travel volumes will continue to rebound is yet to be seen,” said GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang.
The organization also surveyed 4,700 business travelers around the world to get a sense of how their habits are changing as the market rebounds. It found that the two “biggest drivers” of the industry’s revival so far this year have been “the return of in-person meetings and events and the recovery of some international business travel capacity and volumes” as COVID-era restrictions were removed. The survey found that 62% of business travelers are more frequently “blending business and personal travel (i.e., bleisure travel) than they did in 2019, with 42% adding additional leisure days to their business trips and 79% of these travelers staying at the same accommodation for business and vacation portions of their trip.” Respondents estimated their own business travel spending at an average of $1,018 per person per trip, including $391 for lodging, $189 for food and beverage, $182 for airfare, $136 for ground transportation, and $120 for miscellaneous expenses. Two-thirds of the travelers surveyed said their companies provide them with a corporate credit card; of those respondents, 37% said their companies mandate the card’s use for business travel bookings.
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Norse Atlantic Airways stands at the gate in Germany.
Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty ImagesSan Francisco appears to be losing an option for cheap flights to London. The European low-cost carrier Norse Atlantic, which started flying the SFO-London Gatwick route in July, is not taking reservations for flights after Oct. 28, according to Simple Flying. That could make SFO-London a summer seasonal route for the carrier, but AeroRoutes reports that Norse Atlantic has also “closed reservations for service in 2024,” when it had previously planned to resume daily SFO-London 787 flights on March 31. Meanwhile, Norse Atlantic plans to add a new West Coast route next year: Los Angeles to Paris Charles de Gaulle. The airline already flies from LAX to Gatwick and Oslo. Norse has service to Paris from New York JFK and plans to add Miami-Paris flights in December. Its new LAX-Paris service is due to launch May 1 of next year, with six 787 flights each week on a route also served by partners Delta and Air France, as well as Air Tahiti Nui and French Bee (to Paris Orly). Norse said one-way fares on the route will start at $279. Meanwhile, Norse is offering a global fare sale, with discounts on bookings made by midnight Sept. 12, including SFO-London fares starting at $159 each way and LAX-London at $179. Seats are limited, and blackout dates apply.
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A couple of months ago, the Taiwanese airline Starlux announced plans to add San Francisco as its second U.S. gateway (after Los Angeles) by year’s end, and now it has a startup date. According to AeroRoutes, the carrier will begin flying from Taipei to SFO on Dec. 16, initially operating three flights a week and increasing to daily frequencies March 31. Starlux is a full-service airline; it will use a 306-seat Airbus A350-900 on the route (as it does between Taipei and LAX), offering four classes of service: first, business, premium economy and regular economy. Both the Taipei-SFO and Taipei-LAX routes are already served by Taiwan’s other two big international carriers, China Airlines and EVA. As One Mile at a Time’s Ben Schlappig commented, “I can’t think of anywhere other than Taipei where you have three global airlines that share the same hub.”
FILE: Travelers wave Cuban and U.S. flags after JetBlue Flight 387, the first scheduled commercial flight to Cuba since 1961, arrives from Fort Lauderdale on Aug. 31, 2016, in Santa Clara, Cuba.
VIEW press/Corbis via Getty ImagesIn other international news, Cayman Airways plans a seasonal expansion of its service from Los Angeles to Grand Cayman, adding a second weekly flight from Nov. 5 through March 9. Austrian Airlines has filed plans to begin seasonal Los Angeles-Vienna service June 2 of next year, a couple of weeks later than it did this year but increasing frequencies on the route from five a week to six. JetBlue has terminated its service to Havana from New York JFK and will do the same to its Fort Lauderdale-Havana flights effective Sept. 17, according to AeroRoutes. And another foreign airline wants to fly to the U.S., according to Simple Flying: Biman Bangladesh Airlines has submitted an application to the Transportation Department for permission to operate six flights a week starting next summer between Dhaka, Bangladesh, and New York JFK, operating nonstop eastbound and via a stop in Izmir, Turkey, westbound. Simple Flying notes that any U.S. approval would depend on Bangladesh’s earning the Federal Aviation Administration’s Category 1 safety ranking.
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The newest foreign airline to start service to the U.S. is BermudAir, which last week started flying from Bermuda to Boston and to New York’s Westchester County Airport in White Plains, with plans to add Fort Lauderdale service Sept. 22. BermudAir is looking to serve the top end of the market with business class-style seating. It’s using leased Embraer E175s that have 88 seats, but it’s selling only 44 of them per flight to provide passengers with extra space. BermudAir said it will introduce a new “Aisle Class” configuration on the E175s on Nov. 1, changing the layout from two-by-two seating to one-by-one, with a total capacity of 30 seats. “Our Aisle Class seats are designed as suites, providing an exceptional level of comfort and privacy,” the airline said. And its in-flight food and beverage services “are curated in partnership with local establishments, bringing a taste of the island’s renowned hospitality to the skies.”
The main cabin inside a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner from Hawaiian Airlines.
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People swimming in the sea on Aug. 21, 2023, on Maui in Hawaii after the devastating wildfires that ravaged the island.
Zeng Hui/Xinhua via Getty ImagesThere’s no telling how long it could be before travel to Maui recovers following the deadly wildfires there. A couple of weeks ago, we reported on how some airlines had downsized their flight schedules to Maui's Kahului Airport in the wake of the disaster, and AeroRoutes has an update. It said that Southwest Airlines this week suspended flights to Maui from San Jose, Sacramento and Phoenix at least through Nov. 17 and reduced its Oakland-Maui schedule from two daily flights to one. Southwest has also suspended its Los Angeles-Maui service at least through Oct. 4. American Airlines has cut one of its two daily LAX-Maui flights through Nov. 15. Delta has done the same through Nov. 16. United’s earlier reduction of LAX-Maui flights from two a day to one has been extended through Dec. 20. Its Maui flights from Denver and Chicago will remain suspended through Oct. 28 and Dec. 13, respectively. Alaska Airlines’ previously announced reduction of Seattle-Maui service from three daily flights to two, which had applied through Sept. 30, has been extended through Nov. 16.
In airport news, San Jose International Airport has announced an expansion of online parking reservations and the introduction of a car wash option. “The airport has added its Terminal A Parking Garage, or Hourly Lot 2, to the Online Parking Reservation System at a flat rate of $24 per day,” SJC said in a news release. “Terminal B Hourly and Daily Lot 5 is also now available for reservations online. Parking reservations continue to be available in the Airport’s Economy Lot 1 for a low flat rate of $18 per day.” Travelers can see real-time parking availability, book and pay on the airline's website. They can also now book a “waterless exterior car wash” in SJC’s hourly, daily and economy lots provided by Future Wash for $59.99, $89.99 or $199, depending on the level of detail. “During the online booking process, travelers provide their vehicle details, and upon completion, are contacted by the Future Wash mobile car washing team to confirm the order and the car’s reserved location. The vehicle is then cleaned at its parked location and ready two hours prior to the travelers’ scheduled return. A minimum 24-hour stay is required,” SJC said.
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