Business travel recovery ‘set to overtake leisure’

The recovery in global business travel is set to overtake leisure in July, according to the latest research from ForwardKeys, which has the most comprehensive and up to date flight ticketing data available.

Olivier Ponti, VP Insights, ForwardKeys, said: “Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, business travel flight bookings have been slower to recover than leisure, and currently still are. However, that situation now looks likely to change. As of May 30, we are seeing that the trend is set to reverse in July, with the recovery in business travel overtaking the recovery in leisure – as business flight bookings are 14 per cent behind pre-pandemic (2019) levels and leisure are 16 per cent behind.

“Furthermore, the gap will probably widen in the autumn, as business bookings for September are just 1 per cent behind 2019, whereas leisure are 8 per cent behind. It is conceivable the trend of leisure leading the recovery could continue if there is a late surge in summer holiday bookings; but the rise in inflation, including the price of hospitality and airline tickets, makes that unlikely.”