American Airlines Bullish on Full Business Travel Recovery in 2022
Skift Take
American Airlines is bullish on the business travel recovery. The carrier expects revenue from the lucrative segment to fully recover by the end of 2022, joining the likes of Emirates in taking an overtly optimistic stance on the return of corporate flyers.
"We remain very bullish on the return of demand," said American President Robert Isom during a third quarter earnings call on Thursday. Business travel revenues stood at about half of 2019 levels at the end of September after peaking close to 60 percent of levels seen two years ago in July before the Delta variant set back the recovery, he added.
Business travel has lagged leisure flyers in the Covid-19 recovery. While the latter segment has shown a willingness to fly during the pandemic, whether it was to escape to outdoors-oriented destinations in 2020 or make postponed trips to see family this year, the former has lagged. Most corporates face a duty of care burden that has made travel managers hesitant to send road warriors back out on the road while the risk of catching Covid-19 remained high.
“I hear over and over again that we’ve got to get back to the office, and
