Swiss business travelers are flying more often again – these are their favorite destinations Further support for the Federal Council’s EU negotiating plans

It was a fallacy on the part of the sector. During the corona pandemic, the aviation industry assumed that business aviation would only recover after the crisis and that tourist traffic would only follow after a long delay. But it turned out the other way around. The beaches have been attracting crowds of airline passengers for some time now, while management staff have become accustomed to online meetings via Teams or Zoom. In other words, you want to feel the sand, but not necessarily the handshake. In addition, companies can quickly save a lot of money with fewer business trips.

But the number of business travelers is slowly increasing again. This is evident from a new analysis by Lufthansa subsidiary Airplus, which specializes in the sale of business trips. According to this research, Swiss companies booked about a fifth more tickets for their employees last year than the year before. This means that spending on airline tickets reached 88 percent of the pre-crisis year of 2019. According to Airplus, this figure for Swiss passengers is well above the European average of 76 percent.

Significantly more expensive than before the crisis

Meanwhile, Airplus concludes that flight prices have hardly changed within a year. For example, a ticket for a seat in business class cost an average of 4,388 francs – only 16 francs more than the year before. In economy class, the average price remained around 600 francs.

But: Compared to the pre-crisis year 2019, business tickets cost 10 percent more and economy tickets even 18 percent more. This is not surprising. Finally, the sector has faced bottlenecks in the past year, both in international supply chains and in terms of personnel. This created a situation where demand exceeded supply. Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr then said in the spring that he was in no hurry to increase capacity. Because the high returns are “just too much fun” (CH Media reported). After all: according to Airplus, there have been further price reductions in the past three months.

More China flights

“Companies view business travel as an important investment in trusting relationships and ultimately in doing business,” said Andy Stehrenberger, Managing Director of Airplus in Switzerland. While airlines quickly ramped up U.S. services again, Asian flights took longer to return. Flight capacities to Asia are now steadily increasing, Stehrenberger says. “We are therefore optimistic that Asia and especially China will continue to move closer to pre-Corona levels this year.”

After the pandemic, new trends have emerged. On the one hand, business travelers are still leaving less often than before Corona, but when they do, they prefer to sit closer to the front of the plane: 17.8 percent booked a business class seat last year, compared to 14.6 percent in 2019. On the other hand, weekend flights are more popular. The business trip is often combined with a private stay. In the industry this is called “Bleisure” – a combination of business and leisure. It’s fitting that just under 5 percent of passengers booked short, one-day trips – almost half as many as before the crisis.