The Hidden Impact of Flight Disruptions

At a cost of $60 billion a year, flight disruptions have an undeniable impact on corporate travel, affecting everyone along the spectrum from travel managers to TMCs to the travelers themselves. U.S. corporations are estimated to absorb $10 billion of that cost, and disruptions can lead to an increased air travel cost of anywhere from five to 15 percent. That means if your company spends $10 million on air annually, you should expect to spend an additional $1 million just on disruption costs.

GBTA recently hosted a webinar called The Hidden Impact of Flight Disruptions featuring a panel of experts representing various verticals in the industry. Freebird CEO Ethan Bernstein kicked off the webinar by delving into the true value of travel as well as the financial blow of disruptions.

The true measure of travel shouldn’t be spend or relative savings, but rather, the value employees create for the business, and that’s why cancellations, delays, missed connections, really any type of travel disruption, are so damaging to business objectives. It prevents employees from doing their most important work, and it negates the business’ investment in travel.

– Freebird CEO Ethan Bernstein

Next up, ALTOUR’s Doug Payne delved into rebooking challenges faced by TMCs in the event of a weather emergency, technology outage, or any other incident that would impact flight schedules. He also walked through various solutions and services that are available in the event of delays or cancellations, including mobile rebooking solutions that enable travelers to rebook on their own.

Discovery Communications’ Yukari Torotorich ended the session by providing a travel manager’s perspective on flight disruptions, which was followed by a lively Q&A session.

GBTA members may view the webinar in full through the Hub. These sessions are just around the corner:

• GBTA Government Relations Challenge The How’s and Why’s of Becoming a Challenge Partner (Tuesday, March 6 – 2:00 PM ET)
• Expense Management (Thursday, March 8 – 9:00 AM ET) – delivered in Portuguese
• GBTA ECPAT – End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (Thursday, March 15 – 2:00 PM ET)
  Are We Covered? Evaluating Security and Risk at Entertainment and Sporting Events (Tuesday, March 20 – 2:00 PM ET)

The full schedule of webinars is available here.