senecacaptain

Earnings call, per Mr. Kirby

rickair7777

No surprise. Between economics, liability concerns, travel limits, employee fear, plus nobody really wanting visitors I'm sure even important biz travel is being deferred. But not forever.

Excargodog

Hope springs eternal from the human breast...

Alexander Pope

pad39a

Several friends travel frequently for work by necessity and not as a luxury. Their lives are very difficult now because their companies won’t let them travel by plane. Assuming their companies exist on the other side of this, they’ll be buying airplane tickets again.

I don’t think that’s entirely wishful thinking. These things take time to unfold and we are only a few months in. (A few long painful depressing months.)

RhinoPherret

Months are off the table as they are meaningless measures during this pandemic. So many different variables that are going to cause measurements by the year, not months, especially airline travel.

Freighthotdog

Has anyone personally heard any business people say they won’t travel again and use zoom from here on out? I hear that business travel will never be the same both on here and on the news, however every single person I know and have talked to who has a business says zoom is unreliable and they can’t wait to get back to face to face meetings.

FlyPurdue

I have quite a few friends that are management consultants and have not been traveling since March. Everyone of them said that as soon as they are welcome back in their client's offices they will be traveling again.

senecacaptain

yes, frequently. but the folks I know are middle aged with families. younger folks may have enjoyed "the road" and eating out, etc. I am sure they will be back soon.

much of this is not the employee's choice. Why?

1. Corporate legal and safety managers are in a conundrum regarding "putting people on the road" and exposing them to a disease labeled as a pandemic, that has a risk (albeit small) of death. Guess how many corporate travelers are technically obsese, have high blood pressure, etc. Upper management is hesitant to "order" folks to hit the road. Even OSHA can get involved, when companies "fail to provide a safe workplace" or "expose them to known dangerous and unhealthy conditions." Guess what happens to brand reputation and stock prices when your company is on the front page of WSJ due to some scandal. What happens when a bunch of employees bond together and file a class action suit claiming a "culture" of "pushing folks out onto the road" exists at company ABC?

2. Most business folks are traveling to go meet with a client (or make a new client). Or to training, or to tradeshows. Clients are telling service providers "stay home, we are good on this end" or "lets do this over Zoom". Training is being pushed to Zoom/WebEx. Tradeshows are being cancelled. #2 here is occurring independent of #1. In other words, even if a traveling salesman was authorized by his company to travel, his client on the receiving end does not want him showing up anyway. And vice versa.

I know #1 and #2 are happening for an absolute fact, my neighbor is a "travel manager" for a major corporation. She is looped in on all the travel trends and best practices etc.

Some corporations are exploring Frax ownership shares for their senior exec travel. Which may create some pilot jobs and trigger some airplane sales, not a bad thing during this storm we are facing.

#1 and #2 are plain as the sky is blue happening right now.

** on the individual level, many business folks want to travel again. It is part of their DNA. But "orders from above" are holding much of this back.

firefighterplt

^^^ this.

Everyone thinks that businesses are waiting for the doctors to give the all clear.

Nope—they’re waiting for the lawyers. Liability makes the world go round...

GeeWizDriver

Or stop going round in this case...