But in reality, executives have been quick to abandon video calls and get back on the road. Like many changes that seemed permanent during the pandemic, old habits have steadily returned.
Corporates are still lagging behind booming leisure travel, but previous downturns suggest that business trips typically take longer to come back, meaning there should be room to grow further. McKinsey has calculated that international business travel from the US took five years to fully recover from the global financial crisis, while leisure travel was back within two years.
Emissions from travel can form a significant part of companies’ emissions, leading to a crackdown in parts of the corporate world The future of corporate travel is economically significant. The industry claims it indirectly supported one in seven jobs worldwide before the pandemic, and touted annual revenue of $1.4 trillion in 2019. For many airlines, it’s existential: business travel generates as much as 75 per cent of airlines’ revenue on some international flights, according to auditing firm PwC.