Corporate Travel Analysis Reports For The Americas

The potential to impose vaccine passports on international arrivals or even to access bars or restaurants will not please everybody, but it is a key part of the arsenal on offer to governments to combat COVID-19 spread. Canada, for example, has restricted arrivals to fully vaccinated American citizens and permanent residents as part of its phased reopening. Others have adopted similar requirements.

Since the mutation was first identified there were concerns from the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant that it was more infectious and potentially more deadly than previous forms. With enough data now available research now confirms this, albeit vaccinations are proving a strong weapon in limiting the efficacy of the strain's attack.

The strong forecast sentiment for travel has translated into the return of traffic, in domestic markets at least, where the removal of restrictions has permitted mobility. There are even positive signs on the return of business travel with the slow removal of international restrictions now also allowing foreign visits. While the majority of these remain for leisure purposes there is increasing evidence that business travel rates are on the rise.

American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) has reported confidence among its clients about travel plans is growing, but the rise of COVID-19 variants is pushing back travel restart dates in some regions. The findings of its Jun-2021 Travel Client Check-In Survey showed very positively that almost all intend to return to travel before the end of the year, but that is more likely now to take place in 4Q 2021.

Corporate travel is expected to pick up significantly in the United States in the second half of 2021, but will still sit well below pre-pandemic levels with total spend in 4Q 2021 projected to reach somewhere between 25% and 35% of 2019 levels and a third of companies remaining below 25% of 2019 spend at the end of the current calendar year.

Across 2021, airline CEOs from all parts of the world have spoken openly at the monthly CAPA Live virtual summit about air travel, the coronavirus crisis and the path to recovery. To say 2020 and 2021 have been a challenge for these professionals is a major understatement and each shares the journey for their respective airlines through one of the biggest crises to hit the world.

There have been some encouraging signs that business travel is bouncing back as part of a general COVID recovery across the United States of America. While a return to the pre-pandemic normal will still deliver significant changes to how, why and when we travel, it is increasingly expected that levels will soon match those seen before coronavirus struck and return to growth.

The world is a very different place today than it was 18 months ago before when the coronavirus pandemic was in its infancy. That is clearly visible in the latest 2021 edition of Brand Finance's Airlines 50, a report on the most valuable and strongest airline brands which shows the total value of the world's top 50 most valuable airline brands has declined by a third since last year's report.

Having previously invested its knowledge in the development of an eVTOL project with mobility company Archer as part of a broader effort to invest in emerging technologies that decarbonise air travel, United Airlines has now revealed an investment in a new electric aircraft start-up. The airline's CEO, Scott Kirby, says this supports an ambition "to make the blue skies greener".

Almost a year and a half into the pandemic, the best and worst places to be in the COVID-19 era are increasingly defined by one thing, according to Bloomberg: "normalisation" as what has been the biggest vaccination drive in history of the world slowly enabling countries to relax restrictions and dismantle the border blocks that have drained the life out of the travel and tourism and hospitality sectors.