SYDNEY/CHICAGO: Airlines around the world are ripping up schedules and bringing in new flights to cope with a COVID-triggered trend in corporate travel for executives like Jerome Harris - the scrapping of one-day business trips in favour of longer stays.
"I'm happier to save the effort and the carbon and do a few days in a location and have time to meet up with multiple people and visit multiple projects," said Harris, who works for an infrastructure company. "Tuesdays and Wednesdays are not as much of a trough as they used to be in a traditional week," according to United Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella, speaking on an earnings call last month.
"I think probably because people are paying more they are taking advantage of staying longer," Flight Centre Corporate's head of Australia and New Zealand Melissa Elf said. In North America, business-heavy Los Angeles-San Francisco, the busiest domestic route in 2019 according to OAG, is down to eighth. It has been replaced at the top by leisure-dominated Las Vegas-Los Angeles and Honolulu-Maui.