For airlines, the corporate travel segment is a critical engine of value. Business travelers tend to fly in premium cabins, book more flexible tickets, and buy closer to departure—which all translate to higher yields. Despite making up only about 12 percent of air traffic before the COVID-19 pandemic, corporate trips accounted for about half of the airline sector’s profitability in the United States.
However, the pandemic wiped out the majority of business trips in 2020 and 2021. While opinions vary on the speed of recovery, the consensus is that business travel will rebound more slowly than trips taken…