For the aviation industry these are, without question, unprecedented times that require novel thinking. However, it is our firm belief that while COVID-19 has forever changed the world, it has not changed the simple fact that people need airlines and airlines need people. The question is now: how do we navigate to this new normal in a safe, compassionate, and effective manner?
What’s changed?
In the post-COVID world, the international traveler has different expectations. In a recent study by Travelport, it was found that travelers are looking for a variety of different safety measures throughout their journey. It goes without saying that gaining consumer confidence again is a key factor to bring back travelers of all kinds. Additionally, we believe there is a flywheel effect here, that as people start travelling safely or seeing effective safety measures enacted through friends and familythe more likely they are to travel more frequently.
The evolution of business travel
Back in 2018, it was already projected that 50% of the US workforce could become remote.
Fast forward to 2020, this timeline has now accelerated. The last few months we’ve seen an influx of employers around the world allowing remote work, with Twitter, Facebook and Amazon being the most visible contenders — now work from home is becoming work from anywhere.
The future of work is going to be less about absolutes, and more about flexibility.
Even college students are joining this trend as classes are moving into a remote environment. Combine this with a new emerging trend of countries like Barbados introducing a 12-month-stamp program or Bermuda offering a remote certificate program also gives work from home a different meaning.
But are remote workers enjoying working from home (or anywhere)? The data shows us that they might be more than satisfied with this change. In fact, in a recent survey of 1,123 remote workers by The Times and Morning Consult, 86% said they were satisfied with the current arrangements and 1 in 3 said they would move to a new city or state if remote work continued.
Bringing this all together
We have an opportunity to reinvent the travel experience. As an industry we need to make sure that travelers feel secure and have confidence in the entire travel process. We have to pay close attention to understand and address the new consumer journey, as work from anywhere could become a common occurrence while business travel lags in the coming years. With aviation heading towards the direction of touchless tech, app focused and environmental sustainability, we have an opportunity to address these issues and disrupt the industry technologically. If you’d like to learn more about what we’re doing at App in the Air, join our founder and CEO, Bayram Annakov on September 24 from 8-8:15pm PST. We’ll be discussing all things about the future of travel and can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on.
