When it comes to global business travel forecasts for 2024, the good news is that airfares look set to stabilise across key routes around the world, said B2B travel platform American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) recently when releasing its Air Monitor 2024 report.
Having taken account of a range of influencing factors, including airline capacity, local inflation, foreign exchange, and fuel surcharges, Amex GBT noted that airfare fluctuations reveal mixed trends across all regions—with a broad outlook of increased price stability in 2024 .
North America is expected to see minor changes in fares within the region versus 2023 prices (less than 1%) and to Europe (+0.3% business class, -2.5% economy), while airfares to Asia are projected to decline in 2024, the travel platform said.
Flights within Europe are projected to rise around 1%, with declines in prices between Europe and the Middle East (-3.5% business class, -2.8% economy) and South America (-3.9% business class, -10.4% economy), the platform added.
In addition, one of the key global business travel forecasts for 2024 is that negotiated corporate discounts are likely to come under pressure as airlines continue to prioritise yield management, Amex GBT said.
During 2024, further adoption of New Distribution Capability (NDC) could impact corporate travel programmes as airlines’ pricing strategies evolve and become increasingly dynamic, the travel platform added.
Sustainability is also expected to be a growing priority for corporations and travellers, urging swift integration of sustainability metrics in air sourcing, Amex GBT pointed out.
Air Monitor 2024 underscores the impact of making modal shift from air to rail where feasible on competitive routes.
Customers are reporting significant carbon emissions reductions where their travellers are switching from plane to train, the travel platform said.
