CWT and GBTA publish Global Business Travel Forecast, project 3.3% increase in airfares in 2022

25 November, 2021

CWT and the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) published (24-Nov-2021) the seventh annual Global Business Travel Forecast. Key projections include:

  • Airfares will increase by 3.3% year-on-year in 2022, with a further 3.4% increase expected for 2024;
  • Premium airfare sales will begin to recover in 2023 as demand stabilises;
  • Economy airfares will benefit from strong gains in leisure traffic throughout 2022;
  • Business travel is unlikely to exceed 2019 pricing over the next two years;
  • Airline seating capacity is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023/24;
  • Airline profit margins are set to decrease as higher oil prices, COVID-19 protocols, and individual government restrictions put pressure on operations.

GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang stated the forecast is designed "to help corporate travel buyers build and budget their 2022 travel programmes" in light of COVID-19, and provides "a detailed look at macroeconomic factors that will affect pricing in 2022". The forecast combined anonymised data generated by CWT and GBTA with econometric and statistical modelling developed by the Avrio Institute. [more - original PR]