ECONOMYclass accounts for 72% of all air business travel worldwide, according to the findings of a new survey.
The first ever American Express Global Travel and Entertainment Management Survey found the use of economy class was even higher in the US, at 81%, but figures for Europe were not available.
Globally, 14% of companies do not permit the use of business-class travel at all but 22% might allow their employees to travel in business class if they are travelling with customers.
The survey also found that a company’s decision over which class its travellers fly is not always determined by the rank of the traveller. Only 51% of companies now assign tickets according to a traveller’s position within the company. Instead, 40% of companies choose the class of travel for their employees according to the length of the trip and 28% book the class depending on the destination to be visited.
The survey’s findings were based on a survey of 611 of the world’s leading global and national companies, across a wide range of industries, in North and Latin America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.
The majority of respondents, 59%, were based at corporate head office while 28% were based at divisional offices or subsidiaries.