Airbus CEO expects business travel to recover -NZZ By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury attends Airbus’s annual news conference on 2019 results in Blagnac near Toulouse, France, February 13, 2020. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo

VIENNA (Reuters) – Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury expects business air travel eventually to return to close to pre-pandemic levels and airlines are devoting the same space to business class seats as before, he said in an interview published on Sunday.

Air travel remains in crisis despite accelerating vaccine rollouts in developed countries. With video calls having replaced in-person meetings, it remains to be seen to what extent business travel will recover.

But Faury told Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag corporate thinking had changed.

“Companies realised: at some point they have to meet their customers and suppliers in person again. At some point they must be on site to develop products or build factories,” he said.

“That is what airlines are telling us, since they must decide now how their planes will be seated in future. And we see that they are planning as many seats in business class as before the pandemic.”

When asked about the number of business flights he expects in future, he conceded the sector might not recover fully.

“Maybe it will be slightly fewer. One thing is clear to me: people want to fly again. Hardly more but also probably no less than before the pandemic.”

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*