Europe business air travel on the rise
Europe’s business air travel was on the rise in the first half of the year according to figures revealed by international corporate payment solutions provider AirPlus.
AirPlus, which delivers payment and assesses business trips for around 55,000 corporate customers said airline ticket spend was up by 1.7% between January and June compared to last year, while the number of tickets sold rose by 1.6%.
Perhaps surprisingly, UEFA’s EURO 2024 competition saw no real impact with only Swiss companies booking more tickets to Germany in June than in the previous year, coming in at an 6.5% increase.
Commenting on the findings of its Business Travel Index, Mads Krumhardt Enggren, CEO of AirPlus International, said: “Face-to-face meetings remain indispensable alongside virtual meetings.
“Despite adversities such as strikes and cancellations, especially at the beginning of the year, European business travellers were in the air more frequently in the first half of the year than in the previous year.
“They booked their flights earlier to ensure greater planning security. We are also seeing that the combination of business and private travel is becoming increasingly popular.”
With AirPlus key markets including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK, Enggren added: “In times of a shortage of skilled workers, it is crucial for companies to offer their employees flexible working models in order to increase their satisfaction and productivity.
“The combination of business and private travel is an important building block for retaining talent in the long term.”
The travel index results showed business and leisure trips increased by 0.6% and flights were being booked two days earlier – 28.8 days prior to departure to be precise – compared to last year.
And looking into those figures in even more detail revealed female travellers were more forward-thinking than their male counterparts, on average booking tickets five days earlier (32 days compared to 27.2 days).
Travellers were ditching economy class for business class or premium economy with suggestions that could be down to people travelling to more far-flung destinations in Europe and further afield.
Sustainability has also been playing a part in travel plans with fewer domestic flights and longer trips being planned to combine a number of engagements, rather than travelling for individual meetings.
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