It was to be expected: the pandemic has had a massive impact on the business travel industry. The number of business flights has shrunk to a quarter.

This was announced by the Austrian Business Travel Association (abta) on Monday. "The collapse of the business travel market in 2020 is unprecedented," summarized abta President Andreas Gruber in view of the analysis based on data from Statistics Austria and the leading travel management companies. Business trips “practically from one week to the next” were only possible in exceptional cases, according to Gruber. The companies concerned in the travel market, such as airlines, travel agencies specializing in business trips and hotels, had their business basis withdrawn. In the fourth and last quarter in particular, the crisis worsened again, reports the ORF. At the end of 2020, the number of flight tickets issued fell by 87,2 percent compared to the same period in the previous year, according to abta. In addition, something has also changed in terms of ticket prices. Because these have decreased by an average of 12,1 percent. The CoV crisis is hitting this travel industry twice - the significantly lower number of tickets sold is accompanied by lower average prices.