August 10. Global business travel and events costs are expected to keep climbing through the remainder of 2023 and into 2024.
However, lingering economic uncertainty and a gradual easing of supply-side constraints are likely to result in more subdued price increases than the record hikes during 2022, business travel and meeting specialist CWT and the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) said in a Thursday (Aug. 10) press release.
Increased fuel prices, labor shortages and supply chain challenges, paired with consumer demand and corporate buyers having less leverage, have all caused the ticket prices of business travel to skyrocket, according to the release.
“Looking forward, prices seem to be leveling off with much milder increases projected over the next 12 to 18 months,” CWT President and CEO Patrick Andersen said in the release. “We could now be looking at the true new cost of travel.”
The price increases are also being driven by airlines taking longer than expected to get planes out of storage and back in the air, struggling to hire the numbers of cabin crew and pilots they need, and waiting for new planes to be manufactured, Bloomberg reported Thursday. At the same time, passenger traffic has returned to 94% of the pre-COVID level.
“Demand is outrunning capacity growth,” International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General Willie Walsh said in the report.
Source: PYMNTS
