Business travel has disappeared. Will it ever come back?

For countless executives and salespeople, business trips have been a bedrock of corporate life. Employees needed to fly to meet clients, drum up new business and grab some face time with the boss at headquarters. Then came the coronavirus pandemic, which grounded travelers and forced many companies to find news ways of doing things. Zoom replaced face to face meetings, even if there is something awkward about video chats.Now, with coronavirus restrictions easing in many countries, the question is how quickly business travel will rebound, and whether the pandemic and efforts to address the accelerating climate crisis will prevent the lucrative sector from ever making a complete recovery. Road warriors will themselves play a crucial role in determining whether business class is full or mostly empty, as they negotiate a return to corporate life after more than a year working from home. Some — or many — could balk at missing out on date night or their kids' football game. "For a lot of people, frequent business travel has become more of a burden than a perk," said Scott Cohen, a professor at the University of Surrey in England who studies business travel. There is increasing recognition that frequent work trips can negatively effect health and personal relationships, he added. A weak recovery in business travel would be disastrous for airlines, which have already seen their finances stretched to breaking point by the pandemic. While corporate travelers represent just 12% of passengers, on some flights they can generate as much as 75% of profit, according to PwC.<br/>"Business travelers often book last-minute fares at significant markups — in the past, a road warrior may have paid $1,000 one day before departure for the same seat a leisure traveler bought for $100 two months back," Zach Honig, editor-at-large of The Points Guy, explained via email.<br/>