Business travellers are returning to the skies in record numbers, according to figures released by Air New Zealand.
Despite the belief that corporate travel will be slowest to resume after the pandemic because of the rise in video conferencing and working from home, the airline is reporting a massive jump in the number of passengers travelling for business reasons. New figures released by Air New Zealand show domestic business and corporate travel has defied global trends by returning to 90% of pre-COVID levels.
Air New Zealand Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty says the airline has been blown away by the swift recovery, particularly since the last alert level change. “Our initial hopes were a return to 70% next year, so to recover to near normal levels this quickly really reinforces the strength of our domestic network and the desire of Kiwis to reconnect in person.”
In many places around the world, such as the United States, business travel is only sitting at around 15% of domestic travel.
Ms Geraghty says in response to increased demand, Air New Zealand has added more seats, more business-timed flights and bringing on more crew.
“We’ve planned a schedule that enables business travel through increased frequency and connectivity, and are also regularly reviewing opportunities to add capacity, such as deploying our larger A321 aircraft on strongly booked flights.
“We’ve also reduced our top-class fares, meaning customers booking at short notice will pay up to $100 less per seat.
(Photo by Gil Ribeiro)
