(Bloomberg) — Free-spending technology firms are usually among the biggest corporate travel customers. But as the pandemic starts to wane and planes fill up again, airlines are finding that Silicon Valley’s workers aren’t coming back so quickly.
“Tech is definitely trailing,” Andrew Nocella, chief commercial officer at United Airlines Holdings Inc., said at a JPMorgan conference. He pointed in particular to the San Francisco area, where business travel is rebounding “slower than the remainder of the country.”
That’s a worrisome sign for airlines, which are counting on the return of lucrative corporate flights to buoy profits as the pandemic subsides. Tech firms have embraced remote-work options in recent years, which could explain why the industry has been slower to resume the type of in-person meetings that might require a plane trip.
Companies including Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. have begun calling staff back, but with flexible policies allowing work from home two or three days a week. Others such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Twitter Inc. are letting some stay remote indefinitely.
“Tech is probably the one that is most likely to consider substitutes,” like video conferencing over a face-to-face meeting, said Alaska Airlines Group Inc. Chief Financial Officer Shane Tackett. “It’s the one that’s furthest behind.”
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