UK business travel outlook

Interviewed by Chairman Karl Brünjes at a very well-attended Aviation Club Webinair last Wednesday, Loganair CEO Jonathan Hinkles made the point that in his view business travel – crucial for regional airlines – “isn’t going back the way it was!”

“While construction, manufacturing and primary health care will still be drivers of demand, many other sectors will largely switch to online permanently, and this should serve as a warning for anyone thinking about piling capacity into the UK domestic market,” he said.

“Gone are the days when people would spend all week travelling and staying in hotels. Work life balance has changed,” he adds. “Business travel will not return to 2019 levels ever, or at least within any airline planning period.”

Hinkles also was cautious regarding leisure travel, stating that “we are not seeing much sign right now of pent-up demand for domestic tourism,” and that “some of my competitors might be believing their own press releases,” a reference perhaps to Ryanair.

He says: “I have no doubt things will start to recover, but it is too early to tell if we will have a good summer or not.”

(Also see Loganair marches on in this week's BTN.)

The full interview can be seen here.

https://aviationclub.org.uk

www.loganair.co.uk

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OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum

John Jacobs, Edinburgh

The problem with advance booking is that we don’t know when the rules might change. I for one am holding back, but will travel when I know I can. And whilst some aspects of devolution work, the rules regarding border controls do not. They should be for the UK. His comments regarding EASA were interesting.