Business travel spending is set to exceed pre-pandemic levels – Marketplace

Delta Airlines issued its quarterly financial results on Thursday, predicting a lull in air travel around the election, followed by a strong rebound for the holidays. 

Delta reported it made $1.4 billion. It was driven in part by strong demand for premium seats and services — first-class tickets and other amenities, often bought by business travelers who book last-minute and aren’t too worried about spending more. 

While leisure travel has long-since recovered to pre-pandemic levels, business travel is finally catching up.

So, for this story, I was trying to interview RSM chief economist Joe Brusuelas on Thursday, but he was in-transit: “I’m at the airport in Dallas.”

I used to interview Brusuelas from his quiet home office during the pandemic. Now, he said the economy’s booming and he’s traveling for work all the time.

“I can’t keep up with the demand,” he said.

Suddenly, a horn blared. “Mitchell? I can’t hear you,” said Brusuelas. We were cut off by a flight announcement, just like the olden days interviewing business sources in busy airports. 

Robin Riedel follows the travel industry at McKinsey & Company and said that in analyst calls ahead of earnings season, “basically every airline was talking about seeing a strong rebound in corporate travel for let’s say, major tech firms, small-medium enterprises.”

The Global Business Travel Association forecasts that total spending for the sector will finally exceed pre-pandemic levels this year. 

But business travel still hasn’t fully caught up, pointed out Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.

“We’re still below where we were pre-pandemic, in both volumes — probably down about 10% — and spend — when adjusted for inflation.”

And with the economic future uncertain, “there’s more scrutiny on ‘Is this the best way to spend money? Can we do it more remotely? Can we do it maybe in economy class?’” added Robin Riedel.