Airline Comments On Business Travel Encouraging, But Ignore Some Realities
Airline executives are eager to see data that supports a quick return for all business travel, But … [+] underlying issues on why people travel for business and views of individual risk may mean this return will take years to happen.
getty
During the recent airlines earnings calls, leadership at the four largest U.S. airlines all focused on the return of business travel. Each airline spoke optimistically on this, pointing out the nice surge in leisure travel and stated comments from businesses intending to return people to offices after more than a year of working from home. Nothing could be better for the airline industry than for this to be true, but simple confirmation bias tends to have us more heavily weight data points that support our view.
A deeper look suggests that while business travel certainly is on the up-swing, getting all of this important, higher-paying demographic back in the air…