U.S. airlines have enjoyed a travel boom for the past three years, but until this past quarter, big-spending corporate travelers had been largely missing.
Those customers are now back in full force, boosting profits for carriers in what is normally a weak quarter for results. The U.S. airlines that have so far released results – including Delta (DAL.N), opens new tab, United (UAL.O), opens new tab and Alaska Air (ALK.N), opens new tab – all reported a sharp rebound in flying for business purposes.
On Thursday, Alaska Air said increased spending by technology companies like Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab and Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab in the March quarter increased revenue from corporate travel to pre-pandemic levels. For most of the last year, the carrier’s business bookings were stuck around 75% of the 2019 levels.
The corporate travel increase helped the Seattle-based carrier post a strong performance in the March quarter, traditionally its weakest period of the year.
