Guidance From Airlines Still Held Captive by Shifting Covid Conditions

There is one question that is top of mind in most major U.S. airline C-suites: When corporate travelers will return? The answer to that question has proven more difficult to forecast than most expected with year-end shifting to after Labor Day and now to early 2022 amid the ebb and flow of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now, the industry has coalesced around a view that business travelers will return in force in 2022. Executives at American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines — the four largest U.S. carriers, which together carry roughly 80 percent of domestic flyers — agreed on this timeline during recent third-quarter earnings calls. The Delta-variant surge in July and August pushed back many companies' return to office and, by extension, their return to travel. As many have said: Road warriors have nowhere to go if offices are closed and (most) conferences are virtua