Business travel will recover from the pandemic as companies relying on virtual meetings cannot “thrive”, according to an airport boss.
London City Airport chief executive Robert Sinclair claimed it is “easy to sound the death knell of business travel in the midst of a crisis” but he insisted demand will return.
People travelling for work usually make up around half of London City ’s passengers, but the lack of business trips during the pandemic has driven a collapse in passenger numbers, with a year-on-year reduction of 95 per cent in February.
Mr Sinclair said: “While Zoom and Teams have definitely been very helpful in terms of allowing businesses to make do and function, I’m not as convinced that, going forward, it’s going to be the optimal platform for businesses to thrive.
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“The fundamentals of human interaction, the desirability of actually being in front of people… will warrant continuation of business travel.”
Attending events and developing relationships with clients is “very difficult to do” via video conferencing, he claimed.
Mr Sinclair said the UK Government could encourage more face-to-face business meetings by “reducing or preferably eliminating” need for people to self-isolate on their return from international destinations.
The 10-day quarantine period for people returning to England from a location on the amber list – which covers nearly all countries – is “a bit of a blocker to a full recovery of business travel”, he said.
London City is forecasting that passenger numbers in August will reach 27 per cent of what they were during the same month in 2019, climbing to 32 per cent in September.
BA CityFlyer has announced it will operate 26 routes from the airport this summer, including hotspot destinations such as Malaga, San Sebastian, Faro, Florence, Ibiza, Mykonos, Santorini, Nice, Palma and Split.
