2009 has been an extremely challenging for the entire travel
industry as the recession has compelled most businesses and companies
to rethink their travel procurement strategies. This has resulted in a
sharp slowdown in business travel which has always been a money spinner
for major airlines and hotel chains. The Federal Aviation
Administration earlier this year predicted that overall domestic air
passenger traffic was set to fall nearly 9% during 2009, while
international bookings were expected to decline by 2.4% as companies
were forced to make deep business travel cuts to grapple with the
effects of the global recession.
Business travel which accounts
for most first-class and business class ticket sales has suffered
greatly from the huge cuts that companies have been compelled to make
as they have tried to limit their employees travel or move this travel
to the coach cabins for at least short haul journeys. Most companies
however believe that business travel is a key element to their success
as face to face meetings with suppliers and customers cannot be
eliminated no matter how tough the economic conditions for business
are. The personal touch is an essential tool of business which just
cannot be replicated by advances in telecommunications and video
conferencing technologies though a recent UBS survey of 61 influential
travel buyers stated that average air spend this year, has declined
more than 30 percent which has dealt a devastating blow to the business
travel industry. Business travel is the icing on the cake for all major
airlines, which have been affected the most by the cuts in travel
budgets. If in 2008 the airlines were battling rising fuel costs, in
2009 they have to face the travel demand crisis which has even affected
low cost carriers like Southwest which has seen a drop in business
travel demand by nearly 25 to 30 percent for certain sectors.
The
airlines have tried to aggressively combat travel demand crisis by
slashing fares in order to sustain current load factors. These lower
fares have extended even to international ticket sales as airlines like
British Airways offered previously un-heard of deals for its business
class cabin on its lucrative transatlantic route in the spring of 2009.
This tactic was quickly copied by a whole host of airlines during the
months of April and May which were particularly tough for the airlines.
This trend continued all throughout the summer as airlines tried
to sustain their loads and avoid cutting capacity, for fares are far
easier to manage when the upturn which typically follows a downturn
begins. The US economy has in fact already begun to show signs of
recovery as the Federal Reserve in recent days has cautiously averred
that economic activity has stabilized and ‘firmed’ in almost all
regions of the economy. This has also been reflected in the US stock
market which has risen by almost 30% from the levels of historic lows
which were experienced in the month of March 2009.
All this
augurs well for the business travel industry which has begun to see a
slight improvement during September 2009. In fact in a recent Topaz
International survey of 260 travel buyers, a small number of buyers
even displayed cautious optimism as they stated that they expected
business travel spend for the rest of the year to in fact increase as
the economy begins to turn.
In anticipation of this upturn, the
British legacy carrier, British Airways which recently announced
another fare sale across all its cabins for various routes, is all set
to launch a new all-business transatlantic service on September 29th
2009 which will connect New York City’s JFK airport with London’s City
Airport. This premium service which is aimed at time-pressed business
travelers who have to travel frequently between the world’s most
prominent finance capitals will initially launch as a daily return
service which will increase to a twice daily flight from mid-October
2009. The launch of this new service at such a time indicates that the
business travel industry is poised for a take- off yet again.
Most
senior managers intuitively understand that employees have to be kept
on the road even during an economic downturn as business travel is
critical to their success for when business picks up once again they
will have a vital edge over competition. If you believe in this school
of thought and are looking at ways to cleverly minimize your travel
spend, you should consider partnering with the New York City based
travel company, Fare Buzz.
Fare Buzz is one of the nation’s
leading suppliers of business class travel. The company has an
exclusive relationship with over sixty domestic and international
airlines and is able to procure cheap business class tickets for almost
all worldwide destinations. Booking business class travel through Fare
Buzz provides savings of over 70% as compared to tickets booked through
regular channels. Moreover these Cheap Business Class Airline Tickets
come with all the perks of a full priced ticket like mileage accrual
and pre-assigned seats.
To effectively manage your travel spend
and reduce airline, hotel and car rental costs, you need to align with
a highly efficient and cost effective procurement agency like Fare Buzz
which is equipped with a trained and knowledgeable staff who are on
hand seven days a week to ensure that you get the very best travel
deals to meet all your company’s goals of maximizing and effectively
using the travel budget. Do call Fare Buzz at 1-888-808-4123 to speak
to an agent today.
