Corporate Travel Analysis Reports For Europe/MEA

It may not be among the best known ride hailing apps globally, but mobility as a service provider FREE NOW has strong sustainability goals that will certainly appeal to its European users. The Hamburg, Germany-headquartered business was formed in Feb-2019 as a joint venture between BMW and Daimler Mobility and now operates in more than 100 cities across Europe, with 14 million passengers and more than 150,000 drivers.

The next twelve months will be vital in the rebuilding of the travel and transport industry but as new lockdowns are underway, renewed border controls in place and a greater sense of fear grips the world, it will be an unclear and problematic journey, especially for the corporate travel sector: this will bring worries to businesses across multiple sectors.

Emirates Airline has talked - but provided very little detail - about its premium economy cabin for some time, but now the new cabin is finally operational debuting this week on one of the airline's daily Dubai - London Heathrow rotations.

While 2020 may be forgettable, the important role of city tourism and the meetings industry shouldn't be lost in a year of unprecedented challenges. The world has been hit hard by coronavirus and nowhere has that been seen more than across Europe where a second wave is still active across many parts of the Continent.

The COVID-19 crisis has had a devastating impact on international connectivity and as of the end of Oct-2020, the number of unique city-pairs was 36% lower than its level of at the beginning of this year, according to recent data from International Air Transport Association (IATA).

As we entered the new decade the growth in air connectivity was a global success story. In fact over the last two decades (the 2000s and 2010s) the number of cities directly linked by air (city-pair connections) more than doubled while over the same period, air travel costs fell by around half, according to research from International Air Transport Association (IATA).

After a year of constant uncertainty, particularly around holidays and quarantine-free travel corridors, anxiety continues to threaten the revival of travel and tourism. It is hard to take that big step especially the longer this pandemic continues and while vaccine news delivers some optimism, it will still be some time before we freely jump on an aeroplane and jet off on our travels.

The new 2020 edition of the Worldwide Cost of Living (WCOL) report shows the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the cost of living in about 130 cities around the world since the start of 2020. The study from the Economist Intelligence Unit, the research and analysis division of The Economist Group and sister company to The Economist newspaper, shows that currency volatility, supply chain problems, the impact of taxes and subsidies, and shifts in consumer preferences is impacting the price of consumer goods.

Europe was hit hard by the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and just as it was starting to appear nations had past the peak the relaxation of restrictions fuelled a second wave that has the potential to hurt harder as it coincides with the winter months. News of further vaccine successes provides some longer-term positivity, but right now the situation remains tough.

As aviation and travel continues what can only be described as a period of darkness, the industry that emerges will look vastly different than it did before the COVID-19 outbreak. The implications are wide-ranging and highly disruptive. There will be winners and losers in the more constrained marketplace. "It is important to have some sort for a reality check," said CAPA - Centre for Aviation's chairman emeritus Peter Harbison during the latest edition of CAPA Live last week.