American Airlines Sees Future Growth in Blended Leisure and Business Travel
Photo Credit: American Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja speaks on stage at the Skift Global Forum, on September 21 in New York City. Skift / Neil van Niekerk
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American Airlines, travel company? Listen to the carrier's chief commercial officer, Vasu Raja, for any amount of time and it's clear change is afoot at the world's largest airline.
The airline business has changed for American Airlines. So-called blended trips, or those that include both business and leisure aspects, are driving the company's growth as it emerges from the pandemic.
American Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja, speaking at the Skift Global Forum on Tuesday, said nearly half of the airline’s revenues now come from these blended trips. What's more, this new classification of trip is driving the carrier's revenue growth more than anything else today.
“What the pandemic really unlocked, and the recovery from it, is the great merging," Raja said. "People don’t need to keep need to keep a work life for five days, personal life for two days, and carve out two weeks a year for vacations.”
Raja attributed the 20 point gap between the recovery of American's revenues and its capacity in the second quarter t
