While some companies initially bemoaned the fact that the pandemic furthered the phenomenon of the remote, or hybrid, worker, many employers have come to embrace this new aspect of conducting business.
Count United Airlines as one of them.
According to a story in Fortune, United is seeing the benefits of having hybrid workers, especially when it comes to ticket sales. In its third-quarter earnings report, the airline said that "with hybrid work, every weekend could be a holiday weekend," United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby added on a conference call. "People want to travel and have experiences, and a hybrid work environment untethered them from the office and gave them the newfound flexibility to travel far more often than before."
What was once reticence is now accepted, even for airlines. JetBlue, by way of example, has advertised on social media for work-from-home employees to book tickets. And if Kirby thinks it's another component to help with ticket sales, it comes at the right time.
Airlines have bounced back in a big way this year as people are flocking to air travel despite staffing shortages that have impacted the airport and airplane experience. And it doesn't appear to have been just a spring and summer seasonal trend.
On Sunday, October 16, the Transportation Security Administration reported screening the highest number of passengers at U.S. airports since February 2020, with more than 2.4 million people being processed. That's a huge number for a post-Labor Day, pre-winter holidays travel day.
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