by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:00 AM ET, Tue January 14, 2025
Business travel among small and mid-sized businesses grew 9 percent from 2023, signaling a strong post-pandemic growth, according to Corporate Traveler’s 2024 Year in Review.
The new report shares data, trends and developments in business travel over the past year for small- to medium-sized enterprises, highlighting data from 625,000 business trips.
SMEs Boost Business Travel Growth
While business travelers booked 9 percent more flights than in 2023, costs were down 4 percent overall. Domestic flights comprised 80 percent of flights sold by Corporate Traveler, with travelers flying a combined 1 billion miles.
“This year was truly an exciting, successful and transformative year for the business travel industry, especially in the small-to-medium-sized enterprise market,” said Charlene Leiss, President of Flight Centre Travel Group Americas. “With more companies embracing business travel, we’ve seen remarkable growth across cities nationwide.”
Other companies have taken note of this growth: in August, Delta unveiled its new Delta Business Traveler rewards program, designed specifically for frequent business flyers. In October, Hyatt credited a higher business travel demand and groups as one of the major reasons it saw record-high revenue during its third quarter.
The World Travel & Tourism Council also predicted the year’s business travel would bring in a record-breaking $1.5 trillion, 6.2 percent above the pre-pandemic 2019 total.
New Distribution Capability (NDC) is the newest method for airlines to sell flights through third parties, including travel agencies. Business travelers in turn had a greater desire to view all fare types when choosing travel, including restricted fares.
Air Travel: Premium Economy Boost, Popular Routes and More
Across business trips, Corporate Traveler found some unique trends: Monday was the most common day to begin air travel, with 25 percent of corporate travelers taking off on the first day of the work week.
Economy tickets remain supreme, comprising 93 percent of all domestic business travel tickets sold and 69 percent of all international tickets. Yet premium economy domestic tickets grew 294 percent year-over-year, signaling a new trend.
The top five domestic routes for business travelers were Boston to LaGuardia, which fell 12 percent from 2023; LaGuardia to Chicago O’Hare, which increased 25 percent year-over-year; Boston to Philadelphia, which fell 16 percent year-over-year; John F. Kennedy to Los Angeles, which fell 1 percent from 2023; and Boston to San Francisco, which fell 26 percent from 2023.
The top five international routes all ended at the same destination airport: London Heathrow. No surprise, since London is a global economic powerhouse.
The top destinations for business stays were New York, Boston, London, Chicago and San Francisco. On average, hotel stays were about 3 nights, with the average cost of $190 a night.
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