It makes a lot of sense for the CEO to say that we need business to reopen in order to bounce back. However, I wonder if the company can count on that given that the pandemic has changed business models which are now based on digital interactions.
In case someone missed it: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/10/22/american-airlines-ceo-we-need-business-travelers-to-return-in-order-to-bounce-back.html
I am a frequent business traveler and CK and unfortunately I can tell you my flying days are not going to be the same after this. I used to drop $10,000 on a last-minute TATL whenever I felt like it to help a relationship or smooth something over. Our business has done well despite the lack of travel and budget. We are not going to be doing any of that again. Maybe some trips for sales visits but definitely a major deemphasis on everything else. Unfortunately this just showed that it's not as necessary as we thought.
Personally I find this to be a huge blow personally. I live in the sky, know our station leadership and staff in the clubs and many of the FAs, and the idea of losing my home away from home is devastating but seems unavoidable. I've put out feelers but my friends at competitors are in the same boat.
No idea how the airlines will make that up :/
Business travel is not going to return to per covid levels anytime soon. There was a lot of unwanted business travel by sales people just to maintain a good lifestyle (ex entertaining clients). Even though in the short term there will be pain but long term its a good thing that unnecessary travel is reduced.