Travel armageddon: CTM’s plan for the summer flight shortage

You’ve seen the headlines and the noise – traveling this summer won’t be like anything you’ve experienced before.

Knock-on effects from the pandemic, combined with pilot shortages, an increase in leisure travel demand, and the steady return of business travel, have created a travel landscape and a flight shortage like nothing we’ve seen before.

Even as airfare prices soar (35% – 45% on average), demand isn’t going anywhere – and airlines are struggling to keep up. In addition, business travelers are more stressed than ever, returning to a confusing new travel environment and with more travel on their shoulders than ever (SAP Concur reports that four in five business travelers say their company is returning to pre-pandemic levels of travel but with a “more travel on fewer shoulders” approach.)

What does this add up to? An industry feeling the crunch, and Corporate Travel Management (CTM) is among the many companies working through market conditions that are not only difficult, but truly historic in scale. We’re seeing rapidly changing conditions now and predicting more into the future as demand surges.

Realistically, we expect the current flight shortage impact to stick around through summer, with some improvement in fall/winter, but this will be determined by demand. Longer-term, the industry is projecting a return to near normalcy in pilot staffing by 2025, assuming demand continues to track as projected. However, as the pandemic has taught us, world conditions like pricing, recessions, and conflict affect demand – so we may see recovery earlier or later than predicted.

The flight shortage impact on CTM’s service levels in the US

Because CTM’s policy is to be open, honest, and in this case, as realistic as we can be with our clients, we want to share with you what this historic flight shortage means for you – from call wait times to our plans to bolster our frontline staff.

• Phone calls are way up – nearly 40% higher than the volume we received pre-pandemic
• Our after-hours department has been inundated – mainly due to mass weekend flight cancellations
• During normal business hours, our average call hold time is 1-2 minutes – but we have seen hold times as high as 20 minutes on occasion. This is still far better than the industry average of up to 4 hours, but longer than we’d like.

*Note: US only data

How we’re solving

We are doing everything we can to mitigate the ongoing impact on our service levels. We know that there’s no quick fix to a multitude of simultaneous industrywide setbacks, and we are working closely with many of you to handle your individual travel programs and challenges.

Here are five ways we are working through the summer flight shortage:

1) Advisors staffed up for the summer and planning for the fall pick-up

In speaking with our industry partners, we know we are outperforming many of our competitors in terms of staffing. CTM’s executive team meets weekly to review our staffing plan for the next 60 days. As demand for business travel reaches its peak, we are seeing that we are currently staffed at the correct level to match our clients’ booking needs.

We’re also working very closely with our clients to anticipate and staff for the traditionally high demand for business travel during the fall season.

2) Hiring after-hours agents and automating support processes

The first step in addressing a busy after-hours department is to hire more agents. In the last 4 months, we’ve hired over 400 agents.

Part of our plan to tackle traveler needs involves prioritizing our traveler base by who needs our help the most. With the frequency of airline schedule changes, CTM’s technology team implemented a new automated process for most clients for minor schedule changes (under 15 minutes) in March of this year. These changes are automatically processed without traveler approval, but the traveler is notified.

This enhancement has reduced manual work five-fold. In the last two months, we’ve seen 270,000 schedule changes, and have been able to automate nearly 80% of them.

3) Prioritizing after-hours callers with emergency needs and moving bookings online

Telephone prompts allow our after-hours callers with travel plans in the next 72 hours to be prioritized in our queue. Travelers with plans more than 72 hours away are encouraged to call our offices during the day.

We also encourage the use of online booking tools, and all schedules, fares, and negotiated programs are available in your online booking tool. If you have not used an online booking tool in a while, please make sure your profile, credit card, and any loyalty program information is updated. With all information updated in the booking tool, this will enable the booking to process through automation.

4) Working with our airline partners to stay ahead of changes

Like CTM, our friends in the airline industry are committed to improving the customer experience. We are proud of our relationship with airline partners that allows us to get as much advanced notice as possible, even with massive (and manifold) schedule changes.

Our partner solutions group (PSG) team stays close with our airline partners, working with them to streamline unused tickets, changes, and refunds to make our client’s experience as smooth as possible, given the challenges we are all facing.

5) Providing resources for travel managers, arrangers, and travelers

Are you a traveler?
Our simple advice is:

• make your bookings as early as possible
• Consider traveling up to one day before or consider early morning flights
• get to the airport early
• travel light (carry-ons are best!)

Plus, don’t forget airline frequent flyer programs and ensure your frequent flyer information, email, and phone number are in your traveler profile so if they are schedule changes, your airline and CTM can reach out to you as soon as possible.

Remember that disruption is a real possibility – so be sure to sign up for CTM’s alerts, if your travel program offers them, to stay in the know on possible trip disruptions.

Travel manger or arranger?

Be ready to use your communications channels with your employees and increase the frequency of communications to keep your travelers assured and up-to-date on the latest information. Quote the news media and information from CTM so your travelers understand the broader context of this disruptive summer.

CTM has also prepared a comprehensive resource guide for you to share with your travelers addressing safety and travel restrictions, health and wellbeing, and what to expect on their trips (from airport security to rental cars and more).

We're here for you

While the travel landscape changes rapidly, our commitment to you has not. CTM is here for you and your travelers, today and in the future. As always, thank you for your business and your trust. CTM clients, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your account manager if you have any specific questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Maureen Brady
Chief Operating Officer
Corporate Travel Management (CTM)