Corporate Travel Agencies Still Busy Helping Repatriate People — And Even Pets
Skift Take
Evacuations are difficult at the best of times. Now corporate travel agencies are battling border closures, offline bookings, canceled flights and quarantines.
Stranded citizens, employees and even pets are being taken care of by corporate travel agencies pushed to their limits during this pandemic.
Although business travel has dried up, some agencies have been playing their part in ongoing evacuations. And it’s not just the corporate clients leaning on them to bring employees home safely, as the travel agencies can act as the anchor between national carriers and various governments, consulates and embassies.
In the past they've handled the fallout from terrorist attacks, ash clouds, and other deadly viruses — but coronavirus has taken the repatriation project to a new level.
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American Express Global Business Travel repatriated 35,000 travelers around the world in March alone. Operations have ranged from evacuating 150 consultants from Saudi Arabia within 24 hours, to transporting 3,000 medical staff and students from Grenada to their home cities.
It typically works with governments for the provision of hotel, air and ground transport, and tends to procure directly with airlines or charter companies as it liaises with embassies and high commissions regarding the movement of personnel.
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"Project-managing a repatriation is highly complex, compounded by ever-changing operational requirements that require agile support and response," said Mike Holmes, worldwide government services director at Amex GBT. "Having experienced staff familiar with these demands is critical." Amex GBT has a t