The Week In Travel

Business travel is set to fully recover by 2025, with business travel spending in 2021 projected to increase by 21% by year’s end. This was the prediction by the Global Business Travel Association in its annual BTI Outlook. The study also forecasts that annual business travel spending will reach US$1.4 trillion by the end of 2024 – just shy of the pre-pandemic peak of US$1.43 trillion in 2019.

Further signs of business travel recovery were presented by Focus Travel Partnership this week. The consortium found business travellers are spending more on premium cabins on newly reopened transatlantic flights. Average ticket values are increasing by nearly 40% when comparing autumn periods from 2019 to 2021, growing from £2,216 to £3,094. Meanwhile, British Airways and American Airlines, in collaboration with American Express, are providing further support to business travellers on UK-US routes by offering free testing kits to those booked in premium seats.

Elsewhere, Boeing and Etihad Airways have announced plans to strengthen their shared environmental goals. A new memorandum of understanding signed by the two companies will focus on developing more sustainable flight operations across Etihad’s global network, centred around Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet.

And finally, a travel blogger has gone viral after sharing a ‘hack’ to get the best views of the Giza pyramids in Egypt – from a fast food restaurant. Kimmie Connor has racked up 1.6 million views on her Tiktok video, which shows a majestic view of one of the Seven Wonders of the World taken from the roof seating area of a nearby KFC.