A strong passenger demand, the desire for in-person meetings, conferences, and events, and positive travel industry momentum over the last six months continue to drive growth for business travel incrementally, says the latest Global Trends Report released by FCM Consulting, an Australian travel company.

According to a press statement by FCM Consulting, which specialises in business and corporate travel, global passenger demand, as reported by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), was up 9.1 pc in June 2024 compared to the same month in 2023.

It adds that international passenger demand saw the largest growth of 12.3 pc and passenger load factors were 85 pc, an increase of 12.7 pc year on year. Domestic passenger demand was 4.3 pc and passenger load factors were 85 pc, an increase of 2.1 pc year on year.

Felicity Burke

“Total seats offered for calendar year 2024 is up 3.04 pc, an increase of 175 million seats as compared to 2019 levels and up 6.15 pc or 352 million more seats than 2023. This calendar year is the new baseline for aviation growth after 2023. And 2025 airline schedules are forecast to be positive with continued increases,” says Felicity Burke, Head of FCM Consulting, APAC.

“Global hotel occupancy climbed to nearly 70 pc by the end of H1-2024, and air travel demand grew steadily throughout the same period. As the northern hemisphere summer emerges, we forecast travel demand to grow steadily through the next quarter,’’ she adds.

“The forecast seats offered across the top corporate global airlines in 2024 are set to be 5 pc above 2019 and, in comparison, seats offered in 2023 were 2 pc below 2019 levels, 11 of the top corporate airlines are also forecast to exceed their 2019 levels by the end of 2024,’’ says Burke.

Sunny Sodhi

“As for accommodation, the hotel average room rate across the top 100 corporate cities reported by FCM Consulting’s business analytics team was USD 182, a USD 5 drop versus H1-2023. As reported by STR on July 6, the global hotel occupancy rates were forecast to reach 70 pc during July,’’ adds Burke.

“In the car hire sector, The H1-2024 global average daily rate was USD 54, a decrease of 26 pc, when compared to 2023,” she says.

Incidentally, FCM Consulting says that air fares for overseas have declined across all categories in India in the same quarter. 

“International economy and business class fares for all destinations globally from India saw an average decrease of 4 pc and 1.5 pc respectively in April to June 2024,” says Sunny Sodhi, Managing Director of FCM Travel India.