Business travel will not return to pre-pandemic levels: Avelo CEO

Avelo Airlines’ CE Andrew Levy says business travel will not return to pre-pandemic levels since new technologies have matured enough to make companies and employees think twice about corporate trips. “I have shifted my view, and I don’t think business is coming back like anything it used to be,” the veteran airline executive says during a webinar sponsored by XML Financial Group on 24 January. “People have gotten too used to not travelling.” The pandemic has enabled people to realise the value of new technologies like video conferencing, and the value of the time they used to spend commuting or travelling for work, he says. “As that behaviour has become entrenched, I think it’s really going to be hard to reverse that trend,” he adds. “I have shifted my own views [and now] think it will be well south of 100%.” That said, the start-up airline’s target customers are not executives travelling on company time, but rather cost-conscious leisure travellers and passengers visiting family and friends. He anticipates Avelo will benefit from these new trends. “More people are travelling for leisure, having flexibility in their lives, having the ability to fly and have three- or four-day weekends, doing some work but doing it remotely,” Levy says. “That’s right up our alley.”<br/>