Last year was the busiest flying vacation period on record, according to the Transportation Security Administration. Friday, Delta Air Lines told investors that the holidays generated a strong final quarter of the year, as it reported financial results that beat analysts’ expectations.
And it’s not just vacations and family visits that attract more passengers to airlines. Delta said business travel has also increased and expects business travel volume to remain stable or increase in 2025.
That’s good news for airlines, which have seen a much slower recovery in business travelers since 2020’s pandemic lockdowns pushed more people to work from home.
Selling lots of tickets to business travelers used to be how big airlines made big money because those passengers were willing to pay more, said Edward Russell, an independent aviation journalist.
“If they don’t book the same day, they book a day or two in advance, and they pay full price to get where they need to go and get to their meetings,” he said .
And, he added, airlines would sign big contracts with big companies to lock in most of a company’s travel business.
The pandemic put an end to all that. Once things reopened, people returned to airports in droves to go on vacation, but many business meetings remained on Zoom.
Now, five years later, with more return-to-office mandates in effect, business travel volume could be close to that of 2019, Robert Mann said.,
“What we saw is just a slow, constant increase in business travel activity, that is, bookings through recognized business travel agencies,” he said.
And, Mann said, airlines are once again competing for those big corporate travel contracts.
Companies like Delta have highlighted the industry’s recent growth, but, said Samuel Engel of consulting firm ICF, “when you’re in the dark, a little ray of sunshine seems especially bright.”
This means that, although it has improved, business travel is below what it would have been without the pandemic. So to keep their revenues high, airlines have had to compensate, Engel said.
“They have adapted their network and their destinations to ensure they are investing more capacity in leisure destinations,” he said.
And: “Airlines have become very good at upselling,” said Russell, the aviation journalist.
even to individual business travelers whose company may have paid for their ticket, he said.
“There’s a strong trend toward people being willing to pay their own dollar to sit in nicer seats, premium seats, whether it’s extra legroom or first class on domestic flights,” he said.
So even though the number of business travelers isn’t exactly booming, airlines are finding ways to make more money from those who board their planes.
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