Corporate India is flying again | Economic Times

Corporate travel is on the mend, as the second Covid wave ebbs and the higher pace of vaccinations bring renewed vigour to business interactions and meetings.Charter flights are leading the rebound, with India Inc preferring these due to the safety factor.“The recovery in corporate travel that took place in July-December after the first wave has happened between July and August (this year). Of course, we haven’t reached pre-pandemic levels, but we will,” said Rakshit Desai, India MD of FCM Travel.For IndiGo corporate travel has reached 35% of pre-pandemic levels and will soon touch 50%, said a person in the know. Corporate travel had gathered steam in February but soon plunged to 10% of 2019 levels during the second wave. The impact of the second wave on businesses has been milder than last year, when a complete lockdown brought many industries to a standstill and shrank the economy.Aviation was impacted, with airlines expected to post over $8 billion in combined losses for FY21 and FY22. IndiGo has been operating charter flights to countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States region.The airline’s “short-term focus is on increasing the capacity deployed through air bubble arrangements and charters,” InterGlobe Aviation chief executive Ronojoy Dutta said recently. Airlines charge 4.75 lakh to 5 lakh per hour for a 180-seater Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 flight. For the smaller ATR-72 turboprops and Q400 jets, they charge 3 lakh to 3.25 lakh per hour, an industry source said.Private operators with an aircraft seating capacity of between 10 and 13 seats charge 3.65 lakh-3.75 lakh for an hour’s flying time. The number of charter bookings that FCM has facilitated in the last three months is higher than what it did last year overall, Desai added.Demand for private jet operators is also at a record high.“We have recently flown private individuals travelling with families and pets in business jets to avoid using the congested airline aircraft and airport terminals. We believe this trend will continue as it is more of a safety concern than luxury to fly privately,” said Atiesh Mishra, the founder of private aviation solutions company AJM Jet Management.