Will business travel ever be the same?
Will business travel ever be the sa...
While vacations and family visits have come roaring back this summer, one segment of travel is still tiptoeing after a pandemic-force hiatus: business travel.
When will it resume in full? That seems to be anyone's guess, though estimates stretch as far as 2025.
The emergence of the delta variant, uncertainty around border restrictions and the slow rollout of vaccinations to some parts of the world are variables that make it tough to predict when the old patterns of work travel will return, if ever.
In recent earnings calls, Delta and American said domestic business travel had reached 40 and 45 percent, respectively, of 2019 levels by June. Even with the business recovery fairly muted, the number of passengers at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints was up significantly compared to 2020, nearing or topping 2 million almost every day of the past month.