“During the downturn, companies reacted by reducing their travel budgets and stiffening their business travel regulations,” says Klaus Stapel, AirPlus International’s Managing Director in Switzerland. Stapel discussed the business travel trends of Swiss companies at a press conference in Zurich. A program in Radio24, Switzerland’s largest private radio broadcaster, reported about it.

The AirPlus figures show that despite signs of economic recovery, cost pressures by companies on their business travelers remain. Travel managers are still being expected to use their budgets as efficiently as possible.

Listen to the entire audio broadcast here (only in German).

Ask a simple question and get a complicated answer.  That’s what AirPlus International did in a recent joint survey of 99 travel management professionals by asking whether travel budgets in 2010 would increase, decrease or stay the same when compared to 2009. On the surface, the answers were simple: 23.4 percent of respondents looked forward to budget increases, while 19.5 percent felt sure their budgets would take a turn for the worse. The majority, just over 57 percent, were confident that budgets would hold steady at current amounts. Dig a little deeper, however, and the numbers show a more complex situation.

Corporate travel budget cuts were all over the map in 2009. This year, 7 percent of respondents worked with travel budgets that were reduced by less than 5 percent; 14 percent of respondents’ budgets were subject to 5 to 10 percent decreases; and 13 percent of respondents’ budgets were cut by 10 to 15 percent. Larger groups of corporate travel pros were subject to even greater budget reductions: 18 percent saw budget reductions of 15 to 20 percent, while more than one-quarter of respondents were hit with budgets decreased by more than 20 percent.

A lucky few-6 percent of survey respondents-actually saw travel budget increases in 2009, while about 15 percent enjoyed budgets that were on par with 2008 levels. More than 80 percent of the programs with budgetary stability in 2009 will hold steady or even increase further for 2010.

For the 80 percent of survey respondents who cited budget cuts in 2009, the future is more volatile. Those with the smallest budgets cuts in 2009 (less than 5 percent, but more than zero) are the most likely to experience additional cuts in 2010. Indeed, nearly 43 percent of these respondents anticipate additional cuts. In contrast, those companies that cut budgets by 5 percent to 10 percent are the most likely to hold budgets steady. Nearly 86 percent of this category indicated unchanged budgets for 2010, but none indicated budget increases.

To be sure, the corporate travel industry and the professionals managing programs and travelers in this environment are likely to have an interesting ride as 2010 unfolds. The after-effects of 2009 are clearly rippling into 2010 even as the economy begins to improve and corporations take cautious steps to return to a focus on investment and growth. Click on the PDF to read the full study results.

Download the full report for complete results:
AirPlus..The Wire December 2009 (PDF, 263 KB)