Everyone in business is being told to work harder, be more productive on their trips, and be more accessible when traveling. But more importantly, do it more cheaply.
How will this effect the Road Warrior as the hoped for relief from the slump in business travel starts to lighten up? Can air travel possibly become more painful and inconvenient than it was before? OAG claims that domestic capacity in October had been decreased by over 20 percent from October 2000. That is an incredible statistic if you look at the FAA’s 2000 projections for air travel.
The president of American Express Global Travel Services, Mr. Petruccelli, who managed over $29B in worldwide corporate travel sales last year says: “Right now, we are experiencing a burst of pent-up demand for business travel.” Unfortunately that demand is colliding with the realities the shrunken air travel system and a strict clampdown on corporate spending in the last 18 months.
In times past, business travelers often managed to get around some of the more onerous restrictions in travel policies. Travel departments would tolerate high-value business travelers skirting formal rules in the past. However, the depth of the current economic trouble has given travel departments the time and incentive to make sure those rules are followed.
It can be expected that once a genuine economic recovery begins there will be some residual spending restrictions for some travelers. Increasingly, business travel will need to be justified in terms of its effect on the bottom line. Meanwhile, there will be more dependence on teleconferencing and other technologies to replace, or at least supplement, some routine travel. American Express, for example, is now developing a service that will weigh myriad corporate options and requirements, and signal during the trip booking process when teleconferencing may be a better choice than getting on an airplane. Oh goody. If you have ever “Teleconferenced” for anything non-trivial, you know how much fun that can be.
If you need to travel for business, let Air2Air help you fight the travel department and your CFO by showing how much you and your team can save by accessing those tough to get to places with Air2Air
