IATA forecasts that 4.7 billion people will take to the air in 2014. The pandemic is over. The airlines are expected to generate $23.3 billion in profit. When you translate this, it works out to roughly $5.00 / passenger, not enough to buy you a Big Mac at McDonald's. No wonder airlines are trying to increase margins.

One way to increase profits is to adopt more modern technology as fast as practical. One surefire place to start is in replacing the 40-year-old tech stack used to supply business travelers with airfares & related content. Replacing EDIFACT with NDC is being pushed hard by American Airlines. Managed travel programs have to adapt, the die is cast. Now what?

Instead of looking at the problems NDC is causing in the short term, our super panel will look into the future and assess where they think this will all land. At stake is a very substantial portion of the $1.4 trillion business is expected to spend on business travel & meetings in 2024.

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Corporate travel managers are dealing with a multitude of important issues today, including escalating air and hotel expenses globally due to supply constraints and inflation.

However, the biggest disruption certainly has to be the advent of NDC airfares before the industry is apparently ready to move from EDIFACT. TMCs and GDS not ready across the Our great panel in our last webinar on March 27 on the future of NDC airfares was very encouraged by what NDC can bring to the table in terms of benefits.? Multiple direct connections to airlines? Global coverage? More problems than answers.Transition issues aside, the advent of NDC airfares is welcomed for a variety of reasons.

Our great panel in our webinar on March 27 on the future of NDC airfares was very encouraged by what NDC can bring to the table in terms of benefits for managed travel. One panelist judged the 40-year-old EDIFACT architecture to be 10-15 years past its sell-by date, NDC being a major move forward whose time had come.

In the meantime, how do travel programs of all sizes cope with the move to NDC?

This webinar will outline concrete suggestions and tips on how to manage this critical transition.

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The pressure to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions has never been greater. The current regulatory environment globally expects everyone to move to NetZero by 2050. The travel industry, in particular, is extremely vulnerable to seeing the cost of travel escalate due to new fees and an increasing regulatory burden.

What’s the problem with travel in reducing CO2 emissions, especially in air travel?Jet fuel is a wonder product with a super attractive weight-to-power ratio. It can deliver 14x more power than current battery technology for the same weight. And the longer you fly, the more fuel you burn. CO2 emissions from air travel account for 70% to 90% of emissions for an average business trip.

The increased cost of travel will come from governments mandating the use of SAF which is currently 2-4x more expensive than jet fuel at most airports. Fees are being added to heavily taxed airfares, with Singapore recently adding fees for sustainable aviation fuels. In the European Union, airlines are expected to pay up to $3 billion in allowances under the EU-ETS system for flights within the EU as they lose their free ETS allowances over the next 24 months.

We address what national governments are doing in terms of domestic aviation, the impact of ICAO’s CORSIA program on international flights, and how the industry is reacting to these events.

Business travel is booming - GBTA estimates $1.4 trillion in 2024.However, C-suite executives are more skeptical than ever about the value of travel. During the pandemic, some companies saw revenues climb while travel expenses were reduced by, in some cases, hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Business travel is more than just sales; it involves seeing customers, marketing events, trade shows, seminars, internal meetings, etc. There are many reasons for business travel, including onboarding new employees, collaboration to enhance the possible discovery of new, more productive ways to carry on business, and many more.

This has led to a lot of questions about the value of travel.

The obvious answer is that we need to begin a more systematic measurement of the return on investment ( “ROI” ) from business travel. Taking the most straightforward case — sales and marketing—these teams travel for a purpose—to stay close to customers and prospects to increase overall revenues. Increasing revenue is the ROI from sales and marketing travel. But is every meeting necessary? How many people should attend conferences, especially when dealing with long distances and significant expenses for each trip?

We will address these issues and propose possible solutions with our distinguished panel.