Two years into the pandemic and the airline industry remains on standby for the return of business travelers. Expectations that expense account-wielding road warriors would follow on the heels of leisure travelers have yet to materialize, and the outlook remains hazy with the spread of the latest coronavirus variant. That’s kept carriers’ profits in check and raised questions over whether the change is just a cyclical blip or a structural deviation. Southwest’s top executive rued the slow rebound in business travel in an earnings call on Thursday and hinted the pace of recovery may continue to be slower than some industry veterans anticipated a year ago. “I thought we would have this pandemic beat and far behind us, and it’s far from that,” CEO Gary Kelly told analysts and reporters. He said the lingering impact of the pandemic will likely mean fewer business passengers for a longer span. “We’re going to have to be more heavily dependent on consumer travel than we were before.” Business travel is critical to large airlines, who rely on those flyers to fill premium-class seats and pay higher fares for trips booked on short notice. Airlines for America, the lobbying group for the biggest US carriers, says weekly tickets sold for corporate travel remain 63% below pre-pandemic levels. The US Travel Association forecasts that US business travel spending and the number of trips won’t top 2019 levels until 2024. American Airlines Group expects a return of business demand -- but is hedging its bets. “As we’re developing our plans and forecast for this year, we’re working to build an airline that can be profitable even without the full return of managed corporate travel,” CEO Robert Isom said on a conference call earlier this month, referring to large accounts where trips are booked by an outside vendor. Companies have been slow to resume business trips as their return-to-office plans are pushed back and employees have come to rely on -- and even embrace -- video conferences instead of face-to-face meetings. That’s raised anew the question of whether corporate America will resume its old ways or retain the cost and time savings. <br/>
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Airlines have canceled thousands of flights as a winter storm bears down on the Northeast, bringing high winds and the potential for more than a foot of snow in some areas. Winter storm warnings were in effect Friday through much of Saturday from Maryland to Maine, according to the National Weather Service. Carriers canceled more than 3,500 US flights scheduled for Saturday after more than 1,400 on Friday, according to flight-tracker FlightAware. Travel disruptions will last into part of Sunday. Delta Air Lines said Friday that it planned to suspend operations at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and Boston Logan International Airport from Saturday through Sunday morning “as airfields and ground transportation infrastructure are expected to be impacted.” Delta cut 461 mainline flights or 19% of its Saturday schedule, according to FlightAware. JetBlue Airways, which also has a major operation out of Boston, cut half of its Saturday schedule, or 418 flights. At Boston Logan, 616 Saturday flights were canceled, more than 90% of the schedule. Almost all service more than 560 flights, was canceled at LaGuardia and 879 at Kennedy, more than 70% of those scheduled. More than three-quarters Saturday’s schedule to and from Newark, more than 80% were canceled, or 608 flights. Regional carrier Republic Airways, which flies for American, United and Delta, canceled 427 flights, 62% of Saturday’s schedule. American canceled 464 mainline flights Saturday, or 18%, while United scrubbed 396, more than a fifth of what it planned to fly.<br/>
The FAA said on Friday that it had reached an agreement with Verizon and AT&T on a way to expand 5G cellular service while allowing more aircraft to safely land at airports nationwide, cooling down a heated dispute between wireless providers and airlines. At issue were concerns from airlines and the FAA that a planned nationwide 5G expansion would threaten flight safety. The new generation of 5G service, which provides much faster access to the internet, uses so-called C-band frequencies, which are close to the portion of airwaves used by key safety devices. A day before the planned expansion last week, AT&T and Verizon agreed to a compromise: They would continue with the rollout, but would not activate 5G within two miles of some airport runways, in line with a request from the aviation industry. The FAA’s announcement on Friday suggested that all sides were progressing toward a more lasting solution. The FAA said that it “appreciates the strong communication” and collaboration from the wireless companies, which it said had provided more precise data about the location of wireless transmitters and had aided in a deeper analysis of how 5G signals interact with sensitive aircraft instruments. “The FAA used this data to determine that it is possible to safely and more precisely map the size and shape of the areas around airports where 5G signals are mitigated, shrinking the areas where wireless operators are deferring their antenna activations,” the agency said. “This will enable the wireless providers to safely turn on more towers as they deploy new 5G service in major markets across the United States.” Nick Ludlum, the chief communications officer at CTIA, a wireless industry group, said the agreement was “a positive development that highlights the considerable progress the wireless industry, aviation industry, FAA and FCC are making to ensure robust 5G service and safe flights.”<br/>
More airline passengers on UK domestic flights could receive compensation for delays and have simpler access to resolve claims under government proposals announced on Monday. Passengers would have the right to a partial refund of their fare after a one-hour delay instead of the current three-hour minimum – rising to 50% after two and a full refund after waiting three hours. However, the system could see many people receive less money than before. Under EU regulations, which Britain has retained after Brexit, passengers are entitled to at least a GBP220 payout after three hours’ delay. The Department for Transport said that the new model, based on the way rail and ferry operators offer compensation for delays, would be a significant shift and fairer. Budget airlines have argued that the levels of compensation often outstrip the fare. Airlines often do not pay compensation when delays are deemed beyond their control, for example due to extreme weather, security alerts or air traffic strikes. The government may also force all airlines to be part of the aviation industry’s alternative dispute resolution [ADR] scheme, which allows passengers to escalate complaints if they feel they have not been settled, without recourse to legal action. Currently membership is on a voluntary basis. Ryanair quit the scheme in 2019. The UK’s aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, would also have increased powers to enforce consumer protection law and fine airlines directly for breaches.<br/>
The tensions on Ukraine’s border with Russia are unlikely to have a significant impact on international airline services, according to IATA, given that most commercial operators have avoided overflying the affected airspace for some time. Speaking during a media briefing on 25 January, IATA DG Willie Walsh noted that “this is a region of the world that has seen issues in the past”, meaning most airlines “have significantly reduced the amount of traffic going through the airspace – and that’s been the case for a number of years”. Indeed, bodies including European Union safety agency EASA and the US Federal Aviation Administration have had airspace restrictions – including NOTAMs variously covering parts of eastern Ukraine and Crimea – in place since 2014. Some of those restrictions were introduced before the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in July of that year, having been prompted by security concerns arising from the Russian invasion of the Crimean peninsula months earlier. Aside from risks presented by military activity in the region, contested ownership of airspace has been cited by safety bodies as a significant concern. Today, as tensions rise on the Ukrainian border, Walsh says IATA is “co-operating with all of the relevant agencies, particularly with Eurocontrol, to ensure that traffic that needs to travel in or around that area is able to avoid areas of potential conflict”.<br/>